Fundamentally
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€21.99
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
WINNER OF THE COMEDY WOMAN IN PRINT PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD AND PUBLISHED NOVEL AWARD
'A NEW NAME TO WATCH OUT FOR' THE TIMES
'THE DEBUT OF THE YEAR' STYLIST
'ELECTRIC' GUARDIAN
'By normal, you mean like you? A slag with a saviour complex?'
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.
'Funny, gripping and compassionate' DOLLY ALDERTON
'Not only hysterically funny but trenchant and necessary. I loved it' INDIA KNIGHT
'A raunchy, irreverent, touching and daring debut' PARINI SHROFF
'Essential reading' JONATHAN COE
'A breath of fresh air' MARIAN KEYES
'Original, funny and fearless' NINA STIBBE
Dr Nussaibah Younis is a peacebuilding practitioner and a globally recognised expert on contemporary Iraq. For several years, Nussaibah advised the Iraqi government on proposed programs to de-radicalise 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 was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, and has published op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, the Guardian and the New York Times. She has worked in Washington D.C., Dubai, Cairo, Beirut and Baghdad and currently lives in London. Fundamentally is her debut novel.