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]
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