Author(s): Monica Ali

May Highlights 2011

What if Princess Diana hadn’t died? What if the tragedy in the Alma Tunnel never happened, and she were still alive today? Where would she be, and what would she be doing? Diana’s life and marriage were fairy tale and nightmare rolled into one. Adored by millions, in her personal life she suffered heartbreak and betrayal. Within a life of privilege, she frequently felt trapped and alone. 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. Constrained by protocol and precedent, she refused to follow the rules. The contradictions and pressures of her situation fuelled her increasingly reckless behaviour, but her stature and her connection with her public never ceased to grow. Had she lived, what direction would her life have taken? How would she have matured into her 40s and beyond? Untold Story takes the life of the world’s most famous woman as a point of departure, imagining a future and examining the nature of celebrity, the meaning of identity, and the need to find one’s place in the world. Like Diana, the fictional princess who is the novel’s heroine, is both icon and iconoclast. Will she ever find peace and happiness in her own life, or will the curse of fame always be too great?