Introduction

W hat if Princess Diana hadn?t died? Diana's life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare rolled into one. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered rejection, heartbreak, and betrayal. Surrounded by glamour and glitz and the constant attentions of the press, she fought to carve a meaningful role for herself in helping the needy and dispossessed. Had she lived, what direction would her life have taken? How would she have matured into her forties and beyond?

Untold Story is about the nature of celebrity, the meaning of identity, and the finding of one's place in the world. Like Diana, the fictional princess who is the novel's heroine is both icon and iconoclast. She touches many millions of lives and hearts around the world, sharing the details of her troubled marriage and her eating disorder and reaching out as has no other royal before her. But she is troubled and on the brink of disaster. Will she ever find peace and happiness in her own life, or will the curse of fame always be too great?

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 would the beloved icon be if she were alive today? What would she be doing? And where? One of the most versatile and bold writers of our time, Monica Ali has imagined a different fate for Diana in her spectacular new novel, Untold Story. 

Diana's life and marriage were both fairy tale and nightmare rolled into one. Adored by millions, she suffered rejection, heartbreak, and betrayal. Surrounded by glamour and glitz and the constant attention of the press, she fought to carve a meaningful role for herself in helping the needy and dispossessed. The contradictions and pressures of her situation fueled her increasingly reckless behavior, but her stature and her connection with her public never ceased to grow. If Diana had lived, would she ever have found peace and happiness, or would the curse of fame always have been too great? 

Fast forward a decade after the (averted) Paris tragedy, and an Englishwoman named Lydia is living in a small, nondescript town somewhere in the American Midwest. She has a circle of friends: one owns a dress shop; one is a Realtor; another is a frenzied stay-at-home mom. Lydia volunteers at an animal shelter, and swims a lot. Her lover, who adores her, feels she won?t let him know her. Who is she? 

Untold Story is about the cost of celebrity, the meaning of identity, and the possibility?or impossibility?of reinventing a life. Ali's fictional princess is beautiful, intrepid, and resourceful and has established a fragile peace. And then the past threatens to destroy her new life. Ali has created a riveting novel inspired by the cultural icon she calls ?a gorgeous bundle of trouble.?

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Amazon Exclusive: Joanne Harris Reviews Untold Story

Joanne Harris is the author of Blueeyed Boy, The Lollipop Shoes and Chocolat.

In Untold Story, Monica Ali has managed to do what the tabloids never did. She made me care about Diana. More than that, she made me admire the woman she has created out of the myth. This is a terrific, clever, multi-layered and subtle book (and let's not forget - hugely entertaining!), which deserves more acclaim than it has received so far.

Untold Story is a novel that can be read on many levels. At first glance, it's a thriller that taps into a number of female fantasies; reinvention, romance, adventure and the dark fairytale that was Diana, Princess of Wales ? a story that nearly all of us followed guiltily, in the tabloids, as its subject hurtled inevitably towards self- destruction. Looking beneath the surface, however, it becomes clear that Untold Story is much more than just a nicely-written piece of parallel tabloidery. It is a commentary on the nature of identity, of how we are judged, not by what we actually do, but by what we are perceived to be in a world where artifice rules and where truth matters less than story. It is about what it's like to be a troublesome, spirited woman in a world where women are meant to conform. It's about the choices a woman must make when trying to take control of her life. It's about letting go of the labels that others try to stick onto us. It's about fighting expectations ? a thing that the author herself has done, in her quiet way, ever since Brick Lane ? in the face of a vicious tabloid machine. It is a wonderful piece of subversion disguised as mere escapism, and I hope it sells millions.

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W hat if Princess Diana hadn?t died? Diana's life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare rolled into one. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered rejection, heartbreak, and betrayal. Surrounded by glamour and glitz and the constant attentions of the press, she fought to carve a meaningful role for herself in helping the needy and dispossessed. Had she lived, what direction would her life have taken? How would she have matured into her forties and beyond?

Untold Story is about the nature of celebrity, the meaning of identity, and the finding of one's place in the world. Like Diana, the fictional princess who is the novel's heroine is both icon and iconoclast. She touches many millions of lives and hearts around the world, sharing the details of her troubled marriage and her eating disorder and reaching out as has no other royal before her. But she is troubled and on the brink of disaster. Will she ever find peace and happiness in her own life, or will the curse of fame always be too great?

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