Fundamentally

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION

‘A NEW NAME TO WATCH OUT FOR’ THE TIMES

‘THE DEBUT OF THE YEAR’ STYLIST

‘ELECTRIC’ GUARDIAN

Nadia is an academic who’s been dumped by her girlfriend and disowned by her puritanical mother. Instead of going to therapy, she decides to accept a UN job rehabilitating ISIS women in Iraq. Sara is a sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just fifteen. Nadia feels inexplicably drawn to her and, as it turns out, they have a lot in common. That is, until a secret confession from Sara threatens everything Nadia has been working for. A bitingly original, wildly funny and wickedly sharp debut, Fundamentally upends a defining controversy of our age with heart, complexity and humour.

Author Biography

Dr Nussaibah Younis is a peacebuilding practitioner and a globally recognised expert on contemporary Iraq. For several years, she advised the Iraqi government on proposed programs to de-radicalise women affiliated with ISIS. She studied at Oxford, Durham and Harvard Universities, and has a PhD in International Affairs. Dr Younis was a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, where she directed the Task Force on the Future of Iraq. She has published Op-Eds in the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and the New York Times. She was born in the UK to an Iraqi father and a Pakistani mother, and currently lives in London.