Nadia is an academic who's been disowned by her puritanical mother and dumped by her lover, Rosy. She decides to make a getaway, accepting a UN job in Iraq. Tasked with rehabilitating ISIS women, Nadia becomes mired in the opaque world of international aid, surrounded by bumbling colleagues.

Sara is a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just fifteen.

Nadia is struck by how similar they are: both feisty and opinionated, from a Muslim background, with a shared love of Dairy Milk and rude pick-up lines. A powerful friendship forms between the two women, until a secret confession from Sara threatens everything Nadia has been working for.

A bitingly original, wildly funny and razor-sharp exploration of love, family, religion and the decisions we make in pursuit of belonging, Fundamentally upends and explores a defining controversy of our age with heart, complexity and humour.

About the Author: 

Dr Nussaibah Younis is a peacebuilding practitioner and a globally recognised expert on contemporary Iraq. For several years, Dr Younis advised the Iraqi government on proposed programs to deradicalise women affiliated with ISIS. She has a PhD in International Affairs from the University of Durham, and a BA in Modern History and English from the University of Oxford. Dr Younis was a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, where she directed the Task Force on the Future of Iraq and offered strategic advice to US government agencies on Iraq policy. She lived in Washington D.C. and in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. Dr Younis has published Op-Eds in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and The New York Times and provided on-air commentary for the BBC and Al-Jazeera. She was born in the UK to an Iraqi father and a Pakistani mother, and has worked in Washington D.C., Dubai, Cairo, Beirut and Baghdad. She currently lives in London. Her debut novel, Fundamentally, is out with Weidenfeld & Nicholson in the UK and Tiny Reparations in the US in 2025.

What Our Reviewers Said:

"A unique and fascinating story focusing on a serious topic written by an author with personal and academic experience into the subject, told primarily in a light and humorous way."

"Nussaibah Younis’ Fundamentally is one of those rare novels that makes you laugh even as it forces you to confront deeply unsettling questions. It’s satirical, sharply observed, and profoundly thought-provoking—a book that takes on radicalization, Western intervention, religious belief, and the sheer absurdity of the bureaucratic systems that claim to help but often hinder."

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