Improbability of Love (Rothschild) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
The book may on occasion be…over-the-top, even for a satire. But Ms. Rothschild writes with such exuberance and spins such a propulsive yarn that you happily accept these excesses as part of the package…. It helps that Ms. Rothschild…knows a great deal about art…. Her erudition—about restoration, authentication, art history in general—comes through on page after page, and it's one of the incidental pleasures of reading The Improbability of Love…Ms. Rothschild makes an impassioned case for art—as a companion to the lonely, as a restorative to those in pain—and leaves us with the unambiguous impression that it speaks with equal power to angels and demons.
Jennifer Senior - New York Times


The novel is a fast-paced imbroglio of skullduggery, dirty dealing, even murder, and finishes with a sort of James Bond flourish when the British security services finally intervene.
Lynn Barber - Sunday Times (UK)


[A] satire worthy of the pen of Evelyn Waugh. A real crowd pleaser.
Vanessa Berridge - Daily Express (UK)
 

Though this novel goes into the darkest of dark places, the overall tone is totally delicious; conspicuous consumption on this scale hasn’t been seen since the Eighties.
Kate Saunders- London Times (UK)
 

This richly satisfying debut novel features Nazi-looted treasure, Russian oligarchs and romance…an ingenious meditation on the true value of art.
Hephzibah Anderson - Mail on Sunday (UK)
 

[A] pacy satire of the art world.… Rothschild dishes up a salmagundi of unscrupulous dealers, desperate auctioneers and dodgy art experts, with a side-order of scheming Russian oligarchs. It’s on the money.
Jackie McGlone - Sunday Herald (UK)


[A] clever, funny, beguiling and wholly humane romance…Hannah Rothschild's first novel is a meditation on both great art and human passion, and as such reads like a confection concocted by Anita Brookner and Judith Krantz.… Part of the novel's charm is that its characters, rich or poor, are all a mixture of frailties.... Rothschild understands the dance between art and mammon.… Her imagined painting of a fête galante by the greatest artist of the Rococo is as scholarly, passionate and enticing as her portrait of the fabulously wealthy, largely philistine and possibly criminal, bunch that pursues it is not.
Amanda Craig - Independent (UK)
 

Mischievous, fun and on the money.… This debut novel from the new chair of the National Gallery is both a satire of the art world and a romance.
Sebastian Shakespeare - Tatler (UK)


Despite some plot holes, it’s rewarding to see Rebecca viciously come into her own once she divulges Memling’s dark secret. Additionally, Rothschild packs the narrative with vivid details, especially about art and food. The book is at its best when delving into the lives of the many people affected by the Watteau.
Publishers Weekly


The painting speaks! It also thinks, feels, complains, and narrates its own story—one that began 300 years ago.... [An] irresistible blend of art, mystery, and intrigue along the lines of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch.… This compulsively readable, immensely enjoyable novel will deeply satisfy that craving. —Barbara Love, formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.
Library Journal


An opulently detailed, suspensefully plotted, shrewdly witty novel of decadence, crimes ordinary and genocidal, and improbable love.… [Rothschild] is a dazzling omniscient narrator giving voice to an irresistible cast of reprobates and heroes. —Donna Seaman
Booklist


[T]he action moves through multiple, often nail-biting plot twists—yes, there are a few convenient coincidences, put across by the fast pace and vivid prose—toward a slightly hasty but nonetheless satisfying resolution. Smart, well-written, and thoroughly gripping.
Kirkus Reviews