Den okända historien

by Monica Ali

What if Princess Diana hadn't died?

Diana's life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered heartbreak and betrayal. Within a life of privilege, she frequently felt trapped and alone. Constrained by protocol and precedent, she refused to follow the rules.

Untold Story takes the life of the world's most famous woman as a point of departure, examining the past and imagining a future. The fictional princess who is the novel's heroine is at breaking point and, believing that the Establishment is plotting her assassination, she makes an irrevocable decision: to stage her own death and begin a new life under an assumed identity.

After a period of intense upheaval, Lydia (as she is known) settles in small town America and establishes a fragile peace. It is threatened by thoughts of what she has lost: not the glamour and glitz of royalty but that which is most precious - her children. She is, at least, safe in the knowledge - having altered her appearance and ten years after her 'death' - that her secret will never be uncovered.

But then a chance encounter with a member of the paparazzi robs her of that certainty. Will he recognize her? Should she flee or remain calm? Is there anyone she can trust and turn to, or will she inevitably be betrayed?

Untold Story is a novel about family and friendship, intrigue and obsession, the meaning of identity, and the peculiar calamity of fame.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Book Club, Alternate History, Royalty

326 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Monica Ali is a British writer of Bangladeshi origin. She is the author of Brick Lane, her debut novel, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003. Ali was voted Granta's Best of Young British Novelists on the basis of the unpublished manuscript.

She lives in South London with her husband, Simon Torrance, a management consultant. They have two children, Felix (born 1999) and Shumi (born 2001).

She opposes the British government’s attempt to introduce the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006. She discusses this in her contribution to Free Expression Is No Offence, a collection of essays published by Penguin in 2005.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jar of Death Pick #33

This book has such a great premise

What if Princess Diana faked her death and moved to a small town in America?

And what if a former English paparazzo stumbled across her?

That sounds super cool. I was excited to read this. I thought it would be imaginative and suspenseful but it wasn't.

It was super slow paced and boring. Nothing happens in this book. We don't learn why she faked her death. We don't learn anything really about her life in America. We don't learn anything at all. I don't understand what the purpose of this book was other than to bore people to death.

Don't read this book just take a Benadryl instead.

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 would have been an exact anagram of Diana, as opposed to the almost-anagram that Lydia is. The book is told in a very annoying way--it switches from the present time (alternating narration by Lydia and a photographer who thinks he knows who she is) with a past tense diary of the butler/assistant who aided and abetted her disappearance followed by a series of letters written ten years previously from Lydia to the butler/assistant.

I read about 150 pages and felt that I didn't care enough to read the next 100 so I flipped to the end.

It was not a good read and I'm not sure if it was that the premise was bad, if the writing was bad, the narration was irritating or that the plot was just not compelling. But, it was still better than the Lemon Cake book from last summer.

[Rossy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
What if Princess Diana is alive? What if she faked/staged her own death because she was overwhelmed with her life and couldn't take it anymore? What if, more than a decade later, someone found her?
I was delighted with this book, I've always been somehow fascinated with Lady Di, and I've sometimes wondered: What if...?
Recommended!

[Antof9 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 ... badly edited. I mean, I liked it, for the most part, and read it cover to cover in a day, but it wasn't really very well done and I had to sit and wait for my husband multiple times today, so it's not like I didn't have the time to read it.

Interesting? Absolutely. Great idea? Most definitely. Execution? Not so great. Perhaps with a better editor, but really, there just could have been more, all the way around.

And really, the spelling "numskull" -- even though approved of by dictionary.com -- made me crazy.

Also, I honestly have no idea what happened at the end. And I don't care enough to re-read the last few pages and figure it out. So while it was interesting and a quick read and good for a beach or back deck, that's about all it is. And I'm thankful the library was willing to share it with me :)

[Lucia Gannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

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.
Men and women were treated stereotypically and the author took great liberties with the lives of the Diana, Charles and her sons.
I know a lot of this knowledge is in the public domain but why not let the woman rest in peace and leave her family alone.
I was very disappointed as I had thoroughly enjoyed Brick Lane. What has happened this author?

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 multiple points of view. But it still comes down to the fact that the story was weak. There was a buildup and then it seemed to fizz out instead of a big crescendo finish. This story could have went many ways, but it comes down to one of the paps that used to photograph her in her former life randomly showing up in the same town as her and realizing its her from just looking in her eyes and him deciding to make the move to announce to the world that she faked her death and changed her looks surgically to hide from the world.

While this all sounds good, I found Ali's story to drag. The pace of the entire book was off. And you simply can't place your finger on it. At first I worried that I simply let my hopes get too high for the book. So while the book had the potential to be a great read, it was rather flat and hard to finish.

[Ruby Soames · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 if this was Ali trying to break into the American market or appealing for controversy... Whatever. It was boring and in my opinion an insult to the reader's intelligence.

[Rachel C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a bizarre project for an established writer to tackle. I skimmed it out of curiosity.

Yeah, it's a total train wreck. Like Desperate Housewives meets TMZ. Yikes. Someone should have gently suggested to Ali that, having gotten it out of her system, she should just chalk it up to a creative writing exercise and toss the manuscript in a cupboard. A deep, deep, dark cupboard.

[Jennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 actually on an upswing when she died), I was willing to suspend my disbelief for the book. My problem with the book was where the author chose to take this idea. The story revolves around a paparazzo who stumbles upon Diana in her new life and wants to out her. The Diana character ("Lydia" in her new life) realizes he is on to her and it turns into a question of how will she (or can she) remain undiscovered by the world at large. I guess that premise is fine. I mean, after the novelty of who is she now, what is her life like, a possibility of discovery is the next logical step, I suppose. However, the way this guy found her was so ridiculously impossible. He was a British photographer in the States working on a book for the 10th anniversary of Diana's death when he happened to look at a map and see that there was a town called Kensington in the general part of the country he happened to be in, so he decided to go there to work on his book. And, guess what? That's where Diana was living incognito! (Because Kensington, of course, was the palace she lived in.) And, of course he happens to bump into her and take a pic of her because he thought she was hot and in spite of her long dark hair, pumped up lips, and new nose, he's able to recognize her eyes and from there? It's on! As if. The worst part is that the author set up a perfectly plausible way for someone to discover Diana, but just left it twisting in the wind. There was a third character, Lawrence, who was Diana's former private secretary. He is the one who helped her fake her death amd start her new life. This guy was dying and wsa keeping a private journal all about her new life and how they went through the process of faking her death, the plastic surgery, her new life in the States, etc. Lawrence also had a brain tumor. So, all the author had to do was make it happen that Lawrence dies before he can destroy the journal (as he kept saying he needed to do), someone discovers it, hands it over to a journalist who was very familiar with Diana from covering her in the past, and voila! Much more plausible. Not sure why the author set up this whole scenario and then never used it. Anyway, aside from all of this, there were a lot of totally flat characters -- all of Lydia's new friends, whom I couldn't tell apart at all, just a bunch of generic soccer moms; a boyfriend who was just a prop; the sleazy photographer and Diana herself who really never even came to life (is that a pun? I'm not sure.) All in all, not a book I recommend.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 1 out of 5]

Monica Ali is a brave, brave writer. It's difficult to write about famous people no matter what time they lived in. It's even more difficult to write about someone as famous and contemporary as Princess Diana. This woman was once the most photographed woman in the world. Millions watched both her wedding and her funeral. There's been countless non-fiction books written about her. We all know a lot about her.

Ali's premise of what would happen if Princess Diana were to fake her death and come to live in America is out there to say the very least. I read a lot of books where you need that all important "suspension of disbelief" in order to buy in to the book. I just couldn't quite get there. I don't know if it was because I've read so much non-fiction about Princess Diana's life (and unfortunate death) that I was too close to the subject to believe or what. Although, that being said, I have to imagine that this book would really only appeal to Princess Diana fans in the first place who in turn have probably also read a lot about Princess Diana. The premise was just nuts. Ali makes a feeble attempt to discuss other people who have faked their deaths but I just can't believe it in this case.

There were also a ton of holes in the story, which really did not help it's case. For instance, it's been said that one reason that the car that Princess Diana was in crashed in the first place is because the paparazzi were chasing her, which then it would have been apparent if Diana were not in the car or if the accident had been faked in any way.

All this being said, Ali is a skilled writer even if this book fell flat for me. She draws you into the story and the writing itself is why I think I was able to finish this book in the first place. I would suggest reading Ali's "Brick Lane" instead to get a taste of her great writing.

[Elizabeth Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 in question, because I recognized a lot of what I read in there to what was in Brown's bio)

Anyway, subject matter aside, the plot is interesting because after all, people did speculate about how/why everything happened when it did, and Ali's portrait of Lydia, an Englishwoman trying to come to grips with who she is, who and what she left behind, and how fragile everything is was really well done. It helps that Ali is a tremendous writer, and deciding to do something this polarizing? It take guts. My hat is off to her.

[Yellowoasis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was no big fan of Diana and found the public outpourings of ‘grief’ after her untimely and extremely banal death to be quite sick-making. But I have always been fascinated by the train-wreck that was her life. What Monica Ali does in this book is make her a sympathetic but flawed and believable character. Once I got past the improbability of the premise, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Some of the exposition was clunkily done, and I wish the sections with Lawrence had been more subtle, but nevertheless it was a clever device. I thought the ending was touching and lovely. Ali has done for Diana what Alan Bennett did for the Queen in The Uncommon Reader.

[Lisa Wolf · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty much the only good thing I have to say about this book is that it was relatively short. What a waste of time.

[Abril Camino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es una novela rara, la propia premisa lo es. Pero Monica Ali tiene muchísimo talento y salva la situación de forma espectacular. Son 330 páginas y me las he leído en dos noches porque, simplemente, no podía parar. Novela original, un poco extraña, pero adictiva y bien trabajada. Me lo he pasado genial leyéndola.

[Tranna Foley · Rating 4 out of 5]

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) slow character study of a woman in extraordinary circumstances. Here, Diana-err, Lydia-has escaped her life as an ex-princess for a new one in the states. All the real details of her previous life-carefully researched and extrapolated from-are there, with one exception; having survived the car accident, she later fakes her death (by drowning) and finds her way, via Brazil, to America. She ends up, on a darkly humorous whim, in an anonymous everytown called Kensington, where she builds a quiet life with her dog, Rufus, a job at an animal shelter, and a tight group of friends. When a British paparazzo stumbles into her town, though, her new life is threatened. This tense development is almost a subplot, overtaken as it is by Lydia's emotional exploration-how she was nearing the edge before her "death," how unbearable but necessary it was for her to leave her sons, how she has matured and recovered over the years. The result is a very human rendering of a mythical woman who survives a tumultuous youth to find an aggressively calm middle age.

[Ruth Seeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 that path? In Brick Lane the answer was yes. Untold Story explores what happens if you say no.

I had some minor quibbles with the characterization of Lydia Stackhouse, the person the Princess of Wales becomes after she fakes her own death. The emphasis on the trauma Diana experienced when her mother ran off with the polo player seemed rather heavy handed. But all in all it's a complex portrait of a troubled woman who learns very early in life that you can't have it all, that there are always tradeoffs, and ultimately that you have to choose yourself instead of trying to live for - or through - others.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a what if kind of fiction book. The author writes a fiction book loosely based on Princess Diana and what would happen if her accident had been avoided and she instead had fled to a small town in the United States. The book waffles back and forth between Lydia (the new identity of the former Princess of Wales), her accomplice and a man that has photographed her since before her royal marriage. The book was interesting ,but slow in the beginning. The author seems to have portrayed Lydia as kind of manic depressive. Those who knew her as the Princess of Wales refer to how emotionally unstable she was. The book did get very interesting when there were only about four or five chapters left (this seemed to be the climax of the book), but then it seemed to end flatly. I had to reread the last paragraphs a few times to completely understand the end. It wasn't what I had expected or hoped to happen. Overall it was a light read that was sort of interesting, but I feel that there were too many loose ends at the end of the book that we left there.

[Eve · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rarely do i ever not finish a book but i could just not take it anymore. Boring, what a load of rubbish! I would not recommend to anyone. Of course i was intrigued by the premise of the story but i thought it would have been what if the accident in the tunnel had been a set up but it was an entirely different story of her faked death. The idea that she could leave her children just so she could go live in some US town, live a mediocre just to escape the media was ludicrous. Also, the character of "Diana" portrayed her to be weak and rather stupid.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Characters poorly developed. Only person I cared about was Lawrence, whose end was abrupt and i really didn't realize it had happened until the following chapter. Simplistic ending. Author couldn't decide whether Di was clever or dull-witted, kept going back and forth. Glad I read library copy.

[Ruth Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Urmmmm I was not expecting this to be a Princess Di conspiracy but I didn't hate it...

[Shasni Bala · Rating 2 out of 5]

Officially listed this in my DNF list. The idea of this story is intriguing, which what caught my interest. But...story is so boring. I'm no writer but in my opinion, I think the execution is not strong or up to expectations, at least for me. I want to love this book but gosh I just can't. Maybe it could be somebody else's cup of tea, just not mine.

[Abigail Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 pero le pongo 4 por todo el tiempo que lo abandone. Me a gustado.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 Midwestern town, posing as a divorcee in hiding from an abusive husband. Lydia, as she calls herself, comes across as sweet but a bit dull, beautiful but low on self-esteem. She has managed to surround herself with female friends who don't pry.

Her boyfriend, Carson, wants to know more than she can reveal, so though he helps to keep her company, he also causes her continuous mental and emotional turmoil. When John Grabowski, British photojournalist on sabbatical to write a book, washes up at the Kensington bed-and-breakfast, the tension mounts.

Despite plastic surgery and darkened hair, the paparazzo who had photographed Diana intensely during the crazy years before her "death" recognizes the former princess by her eyes. It would be the scoop of his life, but he (and the reader) find out what this woman is really made of. The final chapters read like a thriller, with the exception that thrillers often have predictable, formulaic endings. The denouement of Untold Story is satisfyingly unpredictable and perplexing.

When released in the United Kingdom on March 31 of this year, the novel was the most reviewed book throughout the following week, stirring up intense controversy amongst British critics. Did Monica Ali desert her multicultural vision and stoop to trashy commercialism just in time for the Royal Wedding? Or did she rescue Princess Diana from her tabloid identity and conjure up a reverse fairy tale that explores the cost of our celebrity culture and the price paid by non-conforming women?

I go with the latter opinion. Lydia, her female friends, the boyfriend and Grabowski are certainly familiar types found in our everyday world. In other hands, the fate of a beautiful and world famous woman leaving it all behind, including her sons, could have been no better than chick lit with a twist. But Untold Story goes deeper. Even the most avid Diana fanatic would have to ask herself if she would really want to be a princess in the 21st century.

[M]

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 car crash that actually killed her, in the book there is a different story. I'm not going to say to much, because you guys know how I feel about spoilers. However what I will say is that The Untold Story is so confusing. I think its because I know the Diana story so well but still, I am almost 100% sure that Diana's name is never mentioned inside the actually novel. I checked the front flap, and it does say her name there, but my assumption is that Ali just figures that everyone can puzzle the peaces together.

Well for now, everyone can puzzle together what is going on in The Untold Story but I honestly don't think it will stand the test of time. Its well written sure, interesting plot twists and nice characters, there is even a nice little sub plot with good morals. But the complete absence of who Lydia once was, if it was for copyright purposes or just an over site, is what is going to be one of the reasons why The Untold Story will not stand the test of time. But hey, if your reading my blog in present day, go ahead and read it, its not so bad.

www.liveittothefullest.com

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently finished listening to "Untold Story" in recorded book fashion, and would say that although I loved the concept, I thought it could have been much better developed. The "What If?" that the author chose to explore is absolutely brilliant: "What if Princess Diana had staged her own death in order to escape the relentless paparazzi hounding and life in the limelight?" The answer to this that Monica Ali came up with was entertaining, but I was left craving more. Her idea is that Diana moved to a small town in the United States known as Kensington. She completely changed her look, with a dark hair color and some cosmetic surgery and received training in using a different British accent when she spoke so that no one would question her new identity. As the story progresses, a prominent member of the paparazzi happens to wander into Kensington unknowingly and discovers this woman who he realizes is Princess Diana. He threatens to expose her to the world in exchange for the fortune that he will undoubtedly receive by doing so. This book is interesting and you do find yourself wanting to read on in order to see what will happen to "Lydia," yet you will feel like there was a lot left unsaid and unexplored.

[Valerie Christie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tells the story of Lydia, an English woman living in America. She turns out to be Princess Diana. By rewriting history a little bit the author has made it so that the car crash in Paris wasn't fatal and that Diana actually 'died' swimming off the coast of Brazil. Although Diana's name isn't actually mentioned in the book it is fairly obvious that Lydia is Diana in hiding.
The story itself was readable enough but I found it very unbelievable. I didn't understand why they would have had a funeral when there was no body - don't they have to wait a certain length of time before declaring someone dead? I also didn't fully grasp her motivation for disappearing - there was the paparazzi attention but I found it hard to believe that someone would fake their own death because of it, especially Diana who doted on her boys. She would never have left them to the mercy of Charles and Camilla. I feel as well that it really is too soon for a Diana book, and the whole concept of this was just a little bit too strange for my taste.

[Terry Perrel · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 character.
The writing in the early part of the book is over the top.
American characters living in the Midwest use English terms, such as "cargo box." That, I gather, means the flatbed of a truck.
Many scenes are tedious.
The second half of the book moves better than the first, but, overall, it's a patchy piece of work that is not satisfyiing. I could hardly wait to be done with it.

[Joanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting idea -- that Diana became so overwhelmed by her life that she staged a disappearance, got plastic surgery, and relocated to the U.S. But I didn't get far because the sentences are so clunky and the first chapter's dialogue was so wretched.

[Lesa Parnham]

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.

[Fritz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Please don't judge me for reading this.