Untold Story (novel)

Untold Story

First edition (UK)
Author	Monica Ali
Language	English
Published	Doubleday (UK) Scribner's (US)
Publication date	2011
Publication place	England
Media type	Print
Pages	272
ISBN	978-1451635485 (first edition, hardcover)
OCLC	699767337
Dewey Decimal	823.92
LC Class	PR6101.L45 U58

Untold Story is a novel by Monica Ali, her fourth book after two novels and a collection of short stories.[1] It asks what would have happened if Diana, Princess of Wales had not died in a car accident in Paris in 1997 but had arranged for her own disappearance and tried to live an undiscovered life in a small American town.[2] In the novel, Princess Diana is portrayed in fictional form as an English expat named Lydia.[3][4] The story is told through a combination of third person narrative, diary entries of the princess's former personal secretary, Lawrence Standing, and letters written by Lydia.[3][4]

In May 2011, it was reported that Ali had sold the film rights to British production company Cloud Eight Films.[5]

Ali claimed in 2022 that one critic called it 'a curious marriage of author and subject matter'. Ali has spoken of how damaging she experienced what she saw as the stereotyping of her work to be.[6]

Reception

On The Omnivore, a British aggregator of press reviews, the book received an "omniscore" of 2 out of 5.[7] In Bookmarks Sep/Oct 2011 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (2.5 out of 5) with the summary stating, "Ali, who universally wowed critics with her first two novels, instead caused a massive critical divide with Untold Story".[8]

References

1. "'Untold Story': What If Princess Diana Had Survived?". NPR. 28 June 2011. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
2. Joanna Briscoe (2 April 2011). "Untold Story by Monica Ali". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
3. Kakutani, Michiko (13 June 2011). "Imagining a Secret Life for Diana". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
4. "Untold Story by Monica Ali – review". The Guardian. London. 14 July 2012.
5. McClurg, Jocelyn (25 May 2011). "Princess Diana lives on in new novel". USA Today. Retrieved 7 December 2016 – via Gannett Company.
6. Wolfe-Robinson, Maya (7 February 2022). "Monica Ali says reaction to previous novel caused 10 years of depression". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
7. "Untold Story". The Omnivore. Archived from the original on 23 March 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
8. "Untold Story: A Novel". Bookmarks Magazine. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2023.