When Princess Diana died in Paris’s Alma tunnel, she was thirty-seven years old. Had she lived, she would turn fifty on July 1, 2011. Who ... read full description
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Feb 22, 2012
Mrs. Foley
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I really enjoyed this book! Such an interesting idea. What if Diana (Lady, Princess, Her Royal Highness) had not died in a car crash, but DID fake her own death? What if she was still alive, living a normal existance in the United States? Could she be discovered? I kinda want a sequel to this one...(guilty pleasure).
Publisher's Weekly Review:
Ali (Brick Lane) tackles a juicy premise: what if Diana hadn't died. Far from a salacious romp, though, this is a (sometimes too) slo More...
Publisher's Weekly Review:
Ali (Brick Lane) tackles a juicy premise: what if Diana hadn't died. Far from a salacious romp, though, this is a (sometimes too) slo More...
Feb 14, 2012
Its no secret that everyone loves Princess Di. Its been over a decade since her death, and it seems like I can't go a week with out hearing about the British Royal Family and some connection to her. Now I know the press must have been absolutely awful to live with, which ironically is where I heard that from. Anyway The Untold Story by Monica Ali is about Diana. It shows her faking her own death and moving to the states, after some intense plastic surgery of course. Obviously it wasn't after the
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Feb 07, 2012
Kimberly
rated it: 
While the premise of the story intrigued me, I found the story very weak.
I've always been a bit of a royalty buff, mostly due to the fact that I grew up with my mom a royalty buff, particularly the British Royal Family. So when I heard of this book, I wanted to read it. The idea of an alternate story for Diana. That instead of her untimely death, she faked her own death and tried to live a normal life with a new identity.
I even enjoyed the fact that the story was told from More...
I've always been a bit of a royalty buff, mostly due to the fact that I grew up with my mom a royalty buff, particularly the British Royal Family. So when I heard of this book, I wanted to read it. The idea of an alternate story for Diana. That instead of her untimely death, she faked her own death and tried to live a normal life with a new identity.
I even enjoyed the fact that the story was told from More...
Oct 28, 2011
Antof9
rated it:
I have no idea what I thought this was when I started reading it. Obviously I knew when I requested it from the library, but that was a long time ago, and I'd forgotten. So it was a little surprising to find that it was an imagined retelling of Princess Diana's story, if she'd not really died and had instead faked her own death and escaped to America [not a spoiler].
And I have to say that I loved the idea of it, but the execution was a bit weak. Or maybe it was just that this was .. More...
And I have to say that I loved the idea of it, but the execution was a bit weak. Or maybe it was just that this was .. More...
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Oct 07, 2011
Rebecca
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Even though I think historical fiction is a weird genre, I am really into it. I think it goes back to when I used to write in junior and senior high school and I would take a real situation of some sort (person, place or thing) and distort it a bit to make it better or more to my liking. And then I found out that this is an actual way some people write?! My dreams come true! But funny enough, I rarely pick up books like this. I think the published stuff is sometimes just too weird for me. This b
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Aug 22, 2011
Ruth
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In the hands of a less capable writer, this 'what if Princess Diana staged her death and went off to live in anonymity' could have been very bad. In the continuum of Ali novels, however, I see this one as returning to some of the themes of Brick Lane and answering some of the questions that novel posed quite differently.
What if you made a huge mistake very early in life and that mistake led you down a path of self destruction? Would your sense of duty mean you had to keep going down More...
What if you made a huge mistake very early in life and that mistake led you down a path of self destruction? Would your sense of duty mean you had to keep going down More...
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Aug 22, 2011
Elizabeth
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I can see, just by looking at the overall review average for Untold Story, that I'm totally in the minority for how much I liked it, but I did. I really admire Ali for taking on a subject and topic that's bound to raise a lot of heated opinions, and she clearly did her research--her portrait of Lydia as she was before she became Lydia was wonderful and true, at least in my opinion to who the person before Lydia became Lydia was probably right (Ali also clearly read Tina Brown's bio on the person
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Jul 26, 2011
Judy
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What if Diana, Princess of Wales, had not died, but instead had staged her death and escaped into anonymity? This is the premise of Monica Ali's new novel. The manner in which she creates the tale demonstrates her versatility, being the author who also gave us an inside look at Bangladeshi immigrants in Brick Lane and at the life of a top London chef with In the Kitchen.
The Princess, aided by her private secretary, takes on a new identity in Kensington, a small American Midwe More...
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Jul 18, 2011
Tracy
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While I cannot call this novel completely unreadable, I cannot recommend it. It has received reviews that range from lukewarm to mediocre, which should have dissuaded me. However, the topic drew me, and probably thousand of other 40-something year old women. Lydia is Princess Diana and the novel revolves around what would have happened if Diana had faked her own death to get away from the trappings of her life. The first thing that bothered me was why the author didn't name her Nadia, which
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Jul 05, 2011
Pia
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This was a hugely entertaining story. I have never been a huge Princess Diana fan. I was too young to watch her wedding, and somewhat uninterested when her funeral was on, though the scenes of her sons were truly touching. I hadn't really given her much thought before, so when I saw that Monica Ali had written a novel about her what-if story, I was intrigued from a Monica Ali perspective rather than a Lady Di one. I loved Brick Lane, but had never read her other two novels, but I was intrigued t
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Feb 04, 2012
Jennie
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This book was disappointing. I'm a huge Diana fan and always very interested in royal history through the ages, so this book intrigued me when I saw it at the library. What if Diana hadn't died in the tunnel, but faked her death a few months later so she could escape her life? That's the question this book asks. Aside from the fact that I don't think Diana would leave her sons no matter how bad things got (and from what I understand from reading reputable biographies of her, her life was actua
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Oct 05, 2011
Amy
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Untold Story imagines a reality in which Diana Princess of Wales faked her death and escaped to live a quiet life in small-town America. Going through an acute bout of Anglophilia, I picked this up to steep my brain in royalty and revisionist history.
Ali's novel is page-turner, a testament to the one truth of Diana's life - that we all wanted to know what she was doing and what would happen to her next.
The main characters - Lydia and the papparazzo - are portraits of t More...
Ali's novel is page-turner, a testament to the one truth of Diana's life - that we all wanted to know what she was doing and what would happen to her next.
The main characters - Lydia and the papparazzo - are portraits of t More...
Sep 24, 2011
MaryAlice
rated it:
I admit to being enthralled by Diana. The height of that enthrallment was reading Tina Brown's excellent book on her. In it,everyone has both good and bad sides (except Camilla. She doesn't come off too well). Loving that book really set me up well to enjoy this fantasy. Tina Brown's analysis of the princess, her actions and motivations match the interior dialogue of Lydia in The Untold Story very well, so I do not have the same quibbles as many of the reviewers below. I enjoyed the what if p
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Jul 27, 2011
Jessica
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jul 08, 2011
Erin
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Oct 11, 2011
Debbie
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Aug 06, 2011
Stephanie
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Monica Ali's latest novel imagines that Princess Diana did not die in a car crash in a Paris tunnel but, rather, after plastic surgery in Brazil and the addition of brown contact lenses, has been living a quiet life as "Lydia" in an American suburb (Kensington, natch) and working at a dog kennel. Although Ali's Diana "dies" by drowning in shark infested waters, all the other players in the Princess's life make cameos (but not by proper name): her "husband's mistress,"
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Aug 16, 2011
Perrel
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I loved Brick Lane by Monica Ali and have recommended it for years, but there is little love about Untold Story. I sense Ali wanted to write a novel more commercially appealing than her others by trying to imagine "what if." In this case, what if Princess Di survived the accident in which Dodi Fayed died? What if she faked her own death, ran to Brazil for plastic surgery, what if. . .
Here is a list of my complaints about this book.
Lydia/Princess Di is a poorly developed ch More...
Here is a list of my complaints about this book.
Lydia/Princess Di is a poorly developed ch More...
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Sep 05, 2011
Stacey
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A great "what if?" story as captured by Monica Ali. I was more fascinated by Princess Diana after her death, and this novel offers some additional insight into the tortured, bedazzling, yet brief life of a woman who was doomed from the start.
The novel is almost an epistolary that explores Diana's bulimia, relentless pursuit of unavailable men and misunderstood insanity. Who would blame her, after her abandonment at an early age? We are all doomed to repeat the past. The ba More...
The novel is almost an epistolary that explores Diana's bulimia, relentless pursuit of unavailable men and misunderstood insanity. Who would blame her, after her abandonment at an early age? We are all doomed to repeat the past. The ba More...
Dec 29, 2011
Lauren
rated it:
Earlier this week while browsing the new books I stumbled upon "Untold Story" by Monica Ali, a delightful "what-if" exploring the life of a small-town woman named Lydia, who just might be the Princess of Wales ... if only she had not died in Paris, ten years prior. This book, like a recent Time article, explores how the effects of a decade take their toll on the People's Princess. This "untold story" revolves around the concept that a woman who desperately loves he
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Aug 10, 2011
Lucia
rated it:
I thought this was a load of rubbish and I rarely, if ever, say that about a book I have invested time in.
I read this to the end only to see if it had any redeeming features and I have to say that it does not-not for me anyway.
The idea for the book is good but even serious issues such as eating disorders and self-harm were treated in a flippant and superficial manner.
The dialogue was boring. I could not get a sense of any character or of the place in which it was set.
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I read this to the end only to see if it had any redeeming features and I have to say that it does not-not for me anyway.
The idea for the book is good but even serious issues such as eating disorders and self-harm were treated in a flippant and superficial manner.
The dialogue was boring. I could not get a sense of any character or of the place in which it was set.
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Nov 21, 2011
I hate books that leave the ending an enigma. Does she keep on going? First of all Diana fans know that the incidents in this book would never have happened-DIANA WOULD HAVE NEVER LEFT HER BOYS PERIOD. NO MATTER WHAT.
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Sep 12, 2011
Lisa
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Pretty much the only good thing I have to say about this book is that it was relatively short. What a waste of time.
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Aug 17, 2011
Tracey
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The Book
Untold Story is one of those books where I was convinced the “what–if” premise of the story was going to be its undoing. I think it’s really good writing that saved this from being a complete waste of time. What if the Princess of Wales didn’t die in a car accident but instead faked her own death and moved to the United States to escape her life in London?
With the help of her personal secretary and confidante, Lawrence, she does just this. Her name is Lydia, she h More...
Untold Story is one of those books where I was convinced the “what–if” premise of the story was going to be its undoing. I think it’s really good writing that saved this from being a complete waste of time. What if the Princess of Wales didn’t die in a car accident but instead faked her own death and moved to the United States to escape her life in London?
With the help of her personal secretary and confidante, Lawrence, she does just this. Her name is Lydia, she h More...
Jul 13, 2011
Kathi
rated it:
The best synopsis of this book was my husband's reaction when he saw the book laying on the couch. "Um, are you reading the 'what if' Diana book?" (He apparently listens carefully to the NPR stories each morning.) My response to him was a bit defensive but owning up to the fact that not only was I reading it, but I was also enjoying it. This came as no surprise to him, given my acknowledged favorite guilty pleasure, the intelligent and oh-so-literary weekly periodical known as Peop
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Jun 06, 2011
Jan
rated it:
This book addresses the idea of what would have happened if Princess Diana hadn't died? She survives the car accident in Paris but later fakes her death by drowning. She jets to Brazil to have some cosmetic work done then to Kensington a mid-American town. She has a dog, Rufus, a job at the local animal shelter and a group of good friends. All is well until she is introduced to a fellow Brit. He happens to be a reporter and recognizes her by her unusual eye color. I found it hard to believe that
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May 24, 2011
Missy
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I enjoyed this book, and it's interesting reading it that 'Diana' is actually never truly identified throughout the book, but only as The Princess of Wales. Her sons are never named, nor is her ex-husband. I guess they did this from a legal perspective. The story re imagines Diana's death. A new scenario is painted, Diana faked her death whilst swimming off the coast of Brazil. Now ten years later she is living, quite comfortably in mid-western US, in a town named Kensington, when a face from he
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Nov 12, 2011
Meredith
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I enjoyed reading this book but that's not necessarily synonymous with it being high quality literature. First of all, you have to have at least an inkling of interest in Princess Diana, which I have, but many may not. It's a novel that explores "what if Princess Diana didn't really die but instead just escaped her claustrophobic royal life and assumed a new identity?"
Ali does a good job with the themes presented in the book: fame, obsession, escape, motherhood....I en More...
Ali does a good job with the themes presented in the book: fame, obsession, escape, motherhood....I en More...
Oct 14, 2011
Penny
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The premise of the novel is that Diana had the courage and intelligence to escape her nightmare Princess life, and go to live in Kensington in America as Lydia, a middle class suburban divorcee.
She maintains contact with her sons only through reading gossip magazines, since she "died" while swimming away from her lover's yacht.
The main character is based on Ali's research into the life of Princess Diana; perhaps this is my problem with the book. The original character never More...
She maintains contact with her sons only through reading gossip magazines, since she "died" while swimming away from her lover's yacht.
The main character is based on Ali's research into the life of Princess Diana; perhaps this is my problem with the book. The original character never More...
Jul 03, 2011
Ruby
rated it:
I felt really cheated by this. I liked 'Brick Lane' and 'In the Kitchen' was OK, so respecting Ali as a competent and imaginaition writer, when I started reading, I hoped that the one-dimensional, cliched characters were going to suddenly reveal depth and interest and that this hackneyed vision of small American life was just ironic, an arrow pointing to something deeper...but they didn't and it wasn't. It really was silly and stereotyped right to the unbelievable end. Some reviewers speculated
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