The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild review Baileys-shortlisted art world caper

It takes time to get going, but this story of a rediscovered old master leads us into a high-society world of Russian billionaires, collectors and sheikhs with whimsy and humour

The opening pages puzzled me. Reading the cavalcade of cliches in the prologue, I couldn’t perceive any quality that caused this novel to be elevated to the shortlist of the Baileys prize this month. Could it be that after the success of Ali Smith and Eimear McBride, the judges had been told to throw in some middlebrow contenders?

Or could the cliches have something to do with the subject matter, a society auction of a newly discovered old master – a satiric comment on the nullity of the characters on parade? For rocking up the steps of the auction house is a murky array of Russian billionaires, rap stars, hedgies and sheikhs, all keen to get hold of a 300-year-old oil sketch, The Improbability of Love.

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