The Improbability of Love

Part sendup of the world of art collecting, part love story, and part art-theft mystery, The Improbability of Love is great fun. Opening with the daring theft of a painting from what was supposed to be the art auction of the century, the novel flashes back to when Annie, a talented, lovesick chef, spends her meager savings buying the painting from a junk shop, and slowly reveals how this masterpiece went from hanging in palaces to being stolen by, and from, the Nazis and ending up in circumstances it considers far below its station. Yes, in this story told from many points of view, even the painting has its own (gossipy and sarcastic) voice, and yes, I enjoyed it so much that even when the painting referred to itself as "moi" I kept reading.