Monica Ali. Untold Story. New York: Scriber, 2011.

A number of novels in this blog feature a woman on the run from a dangerous man or a difficult past.  North Carolina, with its rugged mountains, laid-back coastal communities, and quiet little towns, offers the promise of anonymity and friendly people.  In Untold Story the woman on the run is Princess Diana.

Author Monica Ali envisions a different story of the princess’s life.  That car accident in the Paris tunnel is a near-miss, but a few months later Di, with the help of her private secretary, fakes her own death in the waters off the coast of Brazil.  After months of soul searching and plastic surgery in Brazil, Di moves to the United States to begin her new life as Lydia Snaresbrook.  North Carolina will be her new home.  Her first stop is the fictitious town of Gravelton, but when she become restless there she moves to Charlotte.  In Charlotte she trains as a beautician, makes friends with some neighbors, and has her share of flings, but when a neighbor criticizes her frequent male visitors, Lydia takes offense.  She moves to the (fictitious) town of Kensington in an unnamed Midwestern state (Missouri or Illinois?) where most of the action in the novel takes place.  There the princess makes a life as Lydia until a paparazzi visits Kensington and recognizes her amazing blue eyes.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2011, Ali, Monica, Mecklenburg, Piedmont

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