? A debut novel that packs a punch, Fundamentally by writer and former humanitarian worker Nussaibah Younis was shortlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction. This is a humorous yet serious story of an academic with a bold dream that takes her straight to ISIS territory.

The novel starts with Nadia, a British woman out of place as she hikes through the Zagros mountains on a cold September night, exhausted and distraught — and dressed in designer clothes. She’s accompanied by Sara and a man called Darban, who appears to be smuggling them out of ISIS territory. Right off the bat, the first chapter — which takes place five months after the actual events of the novel begin — ends with a mysterious statement from our narrator, implying that she has committed some unforgivable act, yet the reader remains in the dark.

Flashback: Nadia Amin is a UN worker who arrives in Baghdad. She’s shocked by her surroundings, initially expecting to encounter a war torn city in a destitute state. Nadia soon realizes that Baghdad is… well, habitable — with power, bustling streets, and generally full of life. This is a far cry from what she, a UN worker, was under the impression of. She walks past Mercedes cars and five-star hotels, finding herself in disbelief. “I signed up for cluster munitions, not glitter bombs,” she thinks. Little does Nadia know, however, that she’s about to face exactly that.

Why is Nadia in Baghdad in the first place? She’s there for a “de-radicalization program for ISIS brides.” It’s exactly what it says on the tin. Manifesting a self-fulfilling prophecy, Nadia had published a paper on de-radicalization — one so impactful that the UN invited her to put her theory to practice. Settling in the UN camp, Nadia gets to work, later meeting Sara, a 15-year-old ISIS bride from East London who had followed her friend Jamilah (who herself was indoctrinated by a mysterious Wilburt online) to the warzone.

While this may seem like a ridiculous premise, it’s a mirror of reality. Under the literal and metaphorical “abaya” Sara is wearing, she’s just a kid who reads Marvel comics and watches The Sopranos, who just might have unknowingly taken rebellion a little too far. Sara and Nadia come to find out that they’re not too dissimilar — and Nadia finds herself wondering if she would have made the same mistake as Sara back in her teenage years. As the events of the novel progress, Sara drops a metaphorical bomb on Nadia, forcing her to rethink her mission entirely.

The novel features chapters that alternate between present day Iraq and Nadia’s own childhood and upbringing in London. In a way, Nadia is also “de-radicalizing” herself as a woman who grew up in a strict British Muslim household, subjected to religious guilt and shaming. The novel, while at times funny, does not resort to clichés. Humor is natural, and is the kind to be expected in a character who’s well on her way to insanity — after all, this is a fool’s errand.

The tone remains realistic, mature, and the writing is serious — even when dominated by humor, which doesn’t take away from the situation at hand, but rather amplifies its implications. The book doesn’t shy away from the risqué, so if you’re not comfortable with a crude joke, an inappropriate introspection here and there, or characters that don’t fit the social norms expected to be followed in Muslim societies, this is your friendly warning.

WHERE TO GET IT- You can find Fundamentally at Diwan. You can also find the ebook on Amazon.

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