Untold Story (novel)

Last updated

Untold Story
Untold Story (novel).jpg
First edition (UK)
Author Monica Ali
LanguageEnglish
Published Doubleday (UK)
Scribner's (US)
Publication date
2011
Publication placeEngland
Media typePrint
Pages272
ISBN 978-1451635485 (first edition, hardcover)
OCLC 699767337
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 Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg (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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Morton (writer)</span> English journalist and writer

Andrew David Morton is an English journalist and writer who has published biographies of royal figures such as Diana, Princess of Wales, and celebrity subjects including Tom Cruise, Madonna, Angelina Jolie and Monica Lewinsky; several of his books have been unauthorised and contain contested assertions.

Monica Ali is a British writer of Bangladeshi and English descent. In 2003, she was selected as one of the "Best of Young British Novelists" by Granta based on her unpublished manuscript; her debut novel, Brick Lane, was published later that year. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. It was adapted as a 2007 film of the same name. She has also published four other novels. Her fifth novel, Love Marriage, was published by Virago Press in February 2022 and became an instant Sunday Times bestseller.

<i>The Secret Scripture</i> 2008 novel by Sebastian Barry

The Secret Scripture is a 2008 novel written by Irish writer Sebastian Barry.

<i>Summertime</i> (novel) Autofiction novel by J. M. Coetzee

Summertime is a 2009 novel by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. It is the third and final instalment of Scenes from Provincial Life, a series of fictionalized memoirs by Coetzee and details the life of one John Coetzee from the perspective of five people who have known him.

<i>Brooklyn</i> (novel) 2009 novel by Colm Tóibín

Brooklyn is a 2009 novel by Irish author Colm Tóibín. It won the 2009 Costa Novel Award, was shortlisted for the 2011 International Dublin Literary Award and was longlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. In 2012, The Observer named it as one of "The 10 best historical novels".

<i>The Lacuna</i> 2009 novel by Barbara Kingsolver

The Lacuna is a 2009 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It is Kingsolver's sixth novel, and won the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Library of Virginia Literary Award. It was shortlisted for the 2011 International Dublin Literary Award. Kingsolver won the 2010 Women's Prize for Fiction for the novel.

<i>The Finkler Question</i> 2010 novel by Howard Jacobson

The Finkler Question is a 2010 novel written by British author Howard Jacobson. The novel won the Booker Prize.

<i>On Canaans Side</i> 2011 novel by Sebastian Barry

On Canaan's Side is a 2011 novel written by Irish playwright and novelist Sebastian Barry.

<i>There But For The</i> 2011 novel by Ali Smith

There But For The is a 2011 novel by Scottish author Ali Smith, first published in the UK by Hamish Hamilton and in the US by Pantheon, and set in 2009 and 2010 in Greenwich, London. It was cited by both The Guardian book review and the Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of the year. and was also longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction.

<i>Dear Life</i> (book) 2012 short story collection by Alice Munro

Dear Life is a short story collection by Canadian writer Alice Munro, published in 2012 by McClelland and Stewart.

<i>Love and Summer</i> 2010 novel by William Trevor

Love and Summer is a 2009 novel written by William Trevor. It was long-listed for the Booker prize. The story takes place in the fictitious town of Rathmoye in Ireland during the 1950s. It concerns the illicit love between a photographer and the young married wife of a farmer.

<i>Flight Behavior</i> 2012 novel by Barbara Kingsolver

Flight Behavior is a 2012 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It is her seventh novel, a New York Times bestseller, and was declared "Best book of the year" by the Washington Post and USA Today.

<i>MaddAddam</i> Book by Margaret Atwood

MaddAddam is a novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, published on 29 August 2013.

<i>The Luminaries</i> 2013 novel by Eleanor Catton

The Luminaries is a 2013 novel by Eleanor Catton. Set in New Zealand's South Island in 1866, the novel follows Walter Moody, a prospector who travels to the West Coast settlement of Hokitika to make his fortune on the goldfields. Instead, he stumbles into a tense meeting between twelve local men, and is drawn into a complex mystery involving a series of unsolved crimes. The novel's complex structure is based on the system of Western astrology, with each of the twelve local men representing one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, and with another set of characters representing planets in the solar system.

<i>Life After Life</i> (novel) Novel by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life is a 2013 novel by Kate Atkinson. It is the first of two novels about the Todd family. The second, A God in Ruins, was published in 2015. Life After Life garnered acclaim from critics.

<i>How to Be Both</i> 2014 novel by Ali Smith

How to Be Both is a 2014 novel by Scottish author Ali Smith, first published by Hamish Hamilton. It was shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the 2015 Folio Prize. It won the 2014 Goldsmiths Prize, the Novel Award in the 2014 Costa Book Awards and the 2015 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

<i>In the Kitchen</i> (novel) 2009 novel by Monica Ali

In the Kitchen is a novel by Monica Ali, first published in 2009. The novel follows Gabriel Lightfoot, an executive chef in a hotel restaurant in contemporary London.

<i>Outline</i> (novel) Novel by Rachel Cusk

Outline is a novel by Rachel Cusk, the first in a trilogy known as The Outline trilogy, which also contains the novels Transit and Kudos. It was chosen by The New York Times critics as one of the 15 remarkable books by women that are "shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century." The New Yorker has called the novel "autobiographical fiction."

<i>Mr. Fox</i> (novel) 2011 novel by British author Helen Oyeyemi

Mr. Fox is a 2011 novel by British author Helen Oyeyemi, published by Picador in the UK and by Riverhead Books in the US.

<i>Nora Webster</i> 2014 novel by Colm Tóibín

Nora Webster is a historical novel by Colm Tóibín, published October 7, 2014 by Scribner. The story is set in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland, and in Brooklyn, New York in the middle of the 20th century.

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. 1 2 Kakutani, Michiko (13 June 2011). "Imagining a Secret Life for Diana". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  4. 1 2 "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.