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
‘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
‘A NEW NAME TO WATCH OUT FOR’ THE TIMES
‘THE DEBUT OF THE YEAR’ STYLIST
‘ELECTRIC’ GUARDIAN
A wildly funny and razor-sharp exploration of love, family, religion and the decisions we make in pursuit of belonging.
‘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
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Reviews
Younis tackles radicalism and racism, faith and friendship, with dexterity, deep care and a large dose of laughter. Reading Fundamentally is like sitting through an action-packed blockbuster as the plot twists and turns . . . The novel is bitingly witty, and full of pungent jokes, but it also has a strong emotional pull
Extremely fascinating, extremely jaw-dropping - and extremely funny
This is a truly original novel - I don't think I've ever read anything funny about ISIS brides or religious fundamentalism, but this was a treat. It's great on judgements, friendship and trying to do the right thing. Amazing. I couldn't put it down
I loved Fundamentally. I laughed all the way through . . . it's brilliantly done. It's impressive how the book combines elements of farce with such emotional depth and moral complexity. An incredibly accomplished debut.
A wickedly sharp and engrossing exploration of family, friendship and life's messy ambiguities. Tender, funny and unexpected. I loved it
Funny, gripping and compassionate; Fundamentally is a truly original novel that you won't be able to put down
Absolutely hilarious - a Muslim Fleabag
Trenchant, funny and fearless
Heartbroken academic travelling to deprogram ISIS brides in Iraq is an unexpectedly mad hoot. No gazing across windy desert tent-scapes thinking important thoughts. Nadia is a rude, chaotic and gorgeously flawed heroine and I loved spending time with her. A brand new and irresistible narrative voice
An absolute riot of a novel. The humour is so sharp you could cut yourself and the action does not stop. Underneath all that though lies some serious topics, deftly handled, and boy, did I get some of my own thinking challenged. Loved it
A white-hot critique of international aid, with side-splitting prose
Shockingly funny . . . It stunned me, moved me, made me laugh out loud
Clever and thoughtful: passionate but clear-eyed, confronting but nuanced, enlightening and. . . very funny
Younis is a fantastic comic writer: caustic, pitiless, unafraid, with razor-sharp powers of observation. The book is laugh-out-loud funny, and many of the jokes, besides being hilarious, are jaw-dropping in their audacity... Fundamentally is certainly a wild ride, but besides being one of the most entertaining novels I've read in a long while, it will also leave you deeply moved and (incidentally) much better informed than you were before about one of the key political crises of our time. Essential reading.
A novel which follows an Asian British academic as she relocates to Iraq to help de-radicalise Isis brides should not be this funny
Funny, shocking and moving. Absolutely loved this brilliant novel by the incredibly talented nussaibah younis. I haven't laughed out loud at a book so much for ages, but it's also gripping and genuinely moving, as we follow Nadia attempting to negotiate family, love, friendship, religion, deradicalisation, and maddening bureaucracy. Nadia, Sara, and all the characters around them are so memorable, and I feel bereft now it's finished!
An utterly fascinating read. A brilliant book that compels you to turn the page, moves you emotionally, and makes you question everything you thought you knew. A must read. A deeply necessary book
Fundamentally has it all: shockingly funny with a page-turning plot, characters you will root for even when they fumble, but to me it's most interesting quality is a ruthless morally interrogative sensibility that runs throughout. You get the feeling of Younis continually piercing small holes in all our most sentimental and unexamined beliefs, until we are confronted with the world as it is and ourselves as we are, and somehow the overall effect is . . . riotously fun? Younis is the real deal and I can't wait to see what she writes next
Wise, chilling and hilarious, profound and preposterous. The best book I've read this year on the joy, delusions, missteps and precious idealism of our interventions
A wildly witty debut read . . . Nadia's voice is a quicksilver delight
One of the funniest novels of 2025 . . . Packed with snort-worthy moments and witty dialogue
Fundamentally is a rare thing. A genuinely funny book about an attempt to de-radicalise so-called Islamic state brides in Iraq. Incredibly funny, it's a real page turner. A brilliant novel
Densely researched while compulsively readable, funny while packed with emotional heft, able to acknowledge moral ambiguity while avoiding easy relativism. This smart, punchy book is destined to spark conversation. It deserves to be a massive hit
I defy anyone to read it and not have so many laugh out loud moments. It's funny, it's clever, it makes you think. Heartily recommend
So deserving of all the hype and awards. Brutally brilliant
Overflowing with humour, humanity and compassion. This is such a timely novel that teaches us that there's always more than meets the eye. The prose is stark and laugh out loud funny whilst stopping to pull at your heartstrings when you least expect. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous
Bold yet subtle, witty and constantly surprising: such an impressive debut
One of the buzziest debuts of the year . . . an entertaining and funny novel about a serious subject
Impossible not to love
Impossibly funny whilst darkly probing, Fundamentally is the whole package: a raunchy, irreverent, touching and daring debut with slicing commentary wrapped in bold, biting humour. It slyly and systematically rejects our swallowed concepts of heroes and who is correct, and posits instead the better question: what is right?
The debut of the year
It takes huge skill to write a novel that makes you laugh out loud while making you think deeply about something. Witty, smart and with a real love of humanity at its core. This is a gut punch of a novel. Highly recommend
Tart, tender, trenchant, and hilarious, Fundamentally is a brilliant novel about faith and friendship that refuses to be any one single thing -- because it is EVERYTHING. Nussaibah Younis is a genius
So incredibly funny that you only realise afterwards how much you've learned
Absolutely devoured this. Funny, smart and a truly compelling plot about rehabilitating ISIS brides
You'll gasp then laugh
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis is one of the very best debut novels I've ever read. This is an author whose prose, humour and morality are wildly imaginative and brave in a way I feel both shaken and seen by. It's a whole new kind of book and how often can you say that? It is a spectacular achievement - so funny, so imaginative.
I loved this. Laugh out loud funny, outrageous and thought provoking - a winning combination. The compassion at its heart is huge. Nussaibah's experience shines through the page. Best use of fiction I know, to educate and encourage empathy while entertaining the reader so much they don't realise. Highly recommend
EVERY BIT as brilliant as everyone says!! Funny, fabulous writing and the most unexpected ride
This book! People are always calling debut authors "a bold new voice," but Nussaibah Younis is just that. A drama about finding purpose in a savage, indifferent world. This is deeply humane storytelling, sensitive and insightful, laugh-out-loud funny. Above all, it's a moreish page-turner
I really, REALLY loved it - the voice, the setting, the plot, all of it. It's original, warm, funny and engaging. A breath of fresh air
One hell of a ride . . . Not only outrageously hilarious, but it is clever; the characters are complex and multi-dimensional . . . Nussaibah is perfectly placed to have written this story.
Who would have thought that this year's funniest debut novel would be about ISIS brides? If you read Fundamentally on the train, prepare to spend your journey smothering laughs, eyes widened and pearls clutched . . . That Younis knows what she's talking about makes the filthy humour of the book more than just a guilty pleasure - without realising it you begin to think about a divisive topic with more nuance
Not only hysterically funny but trenchant and necessary. I loved it