The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild

The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild

Finalist for the Baileys Women's Prize

Annie McDee, thirty-one, lives in a shabby London flat, works as a chef, and is struggling to get by. Reeling from a sudden breakup, she's taken on an unsuitable new lover and finds herself rummaging through a secondhand shop to buy him a birthday gift. A dusty, anonymous old painting catches her eye. After spending her meager savings on the artwork, Annie prepares an exquisite birthday dinner for two--only to be stood up. 

The painting becomes hers, and Annie begins to suspect that it may be more valuable than she'd thought. Soon she finds herself pursued by parties who would do anything to possess her picture: an exiled Russian oligarch, an avaricious sheikha, an unscrupulous art dealer. In her search for the painting's identity, Annie will unwittingly discover some of the darkest secrets of European history--and the possibility of falling in love again. 

Hannah Rothschild is a documentary filmmaker whose work has screened at film festivals such as Telluride and Tribeca. In 2009, she wrote and directed The Jazz Baroness, a film about her great-aunt and Thelonious Monk that aired on BBC and HBO. She has contributed to Vanity Fair, Vogue, The Independent, and The Spectator in the United Kingdom. She is a trustee of the National Gallery and Waddesdon Manor, as well as vice president of the Hay Literary Festival.