Untold Story, By Monica Ali

Monica Ali's fourth novel marked such a departure from her usual territory that it had critics sharpening their quills.

A risky slice of speculative fiction, it imagines an alternate life for Diana, Princess of Wales, who, instead of perishing in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, escapes to America where she starts over in a small Midwest suburb called Kensington.

For a writer intrigued by questions of exile and identity, this scenario offers Ali plenty of scope for astute psychological abstraction, along with some good jokes.