Title: Fundamentally
Author: Nuissaibah Younis
Publisher: Orion Publishing Group, W&N
Genre: General Fiction, Literary Fiction, LGBTQIAP+
Release Date: 25th February 2025
BLURB
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.
REVIEW
I have seen two different covers for this book, I like them both but if I have to choose, I prefer the more stark, minimalistic one with just the eyes. The other cover is kind of pop art-esque and has a female with makeup blowing chewing gum bubbles. Both are striking covers and hint at the modern, sometimes humorous, sometimes ironic story within.
Nadia and Lydia are in competition against each other at work for a lectureship job. These jobs are highly sought after and difficult to get, so Nadia needs to impress!
Nadia writes a paper on ways to deradicalize ISIS women, it’s a big hit, it’s published in a criminology journal and lands her the offer of the job she wants but it also lands her another job to do prior to the lectureship beginning. Recently having had her heart broken she is eager to get away but rather naïve about what will be expected of her in her new job.
Nadia finds herself in Iraq on a military base trying to head a small team tasked with deradicalizing a group of women in a local camp. The pressure is on as if Nadia’s deradicalisation programme works it will be rolled out in Syria where the problem of Isis women is even greater.
Nadia quickly finds herself in a causal kind of sleeping arrangement with the head of military security (and her security) Tom. He’s a straight to the point kind of guy and for Nadia it’s an uncomplicated fling.
Nadia tries to convert her on paper plan into action, but is met with obstacles in every direction! She faces misogyny, bureaucracy, racism, extortion and an uphill struggle! Nadia’s team are sceptical about her and her ideas is an understatement, however they do eventually rally behind the cause.
Nadia befriends a young ISIS woman called Sara who followed her British friend over who told her it was a great life and place to be. Sara soon becomes an ISIS bride and then realises life in Iraq is not at all like it was promised to be. Her friend, husband & child all died in attacks. Then Sara’s husband is also killed in an attack leaving alone with their daughter Habibah. Sara is sent to the camp with her baby daughter to live in less-than-ideal conditions. Her husband’s parents arrive at the camp one day and forcibly take Habibah from her to live with them in Mosul. Sara is powerless to stop them as she has very little rights and they have the law and people on their side. Nadia becomes attached to Sara, almost seeing herself as she was once talked into becoming an ISIS bride herself. On one hand Sara is serious about staying a Muslim and bringing Habibah up in the faith, then on the other hand she’s a sassy, loud mouthed, sweary, conniving individual who tells Nadia what she wants her to know and no more.
When its strongly suggested that Sara marry another local powerful man to get Habibah back and she goes through with it but immediately regrets it. Nadia ends up coming to the rescue and with help from her local guide Farris, she smuggles herself, Sara and Habibah out of Iraq. You’d think that Sara would be grateful but Nadia finds she has a secret phone and has been communicating with her ISIS friends the whole time. Though Sara insists she isn’t a danger and is not about to attack anyone she insists on observing all the practices of a good Muslim. Something Nadia had given up on years ago when she became estranged from her mother and family. Though suddenly out of the blue her mother had been reaching out and talking to her more. When it seems Sara is about to go off the rails and possibly do something she’ll regret Nadia rings her own mother asking her to approach Sara’s parents who had disowned her in the British media. There’s success when Nadia’s mother talks them into reconnecting with their daughter and the grandchild they have never seen.
Fundamentally has two strong, yet flawed female characters, Nadia who is a lapsed Muslim, initially disowned for her lifestyle by her family and Sara taken in by the dream of being an ISIS bride and the supposedly fantastic lifestyle that came with it, only to discover it was all a lie.
Nadia’s determination to reunite Sara with her baby daughter and rescue her from the camp via repatriation clouds her judgement and puts the repatriation and futures of the other women at the camp in serious jeopardy. Nadia is very close to losing her job over her obsession with helping Sara. When Sara reaches out again from her new home with the important Iraq Official in exchange for being reunited with her daughter desperate for a way out. Nadia feels compelled once again to help. Nadia takes an illegal route of getting Sara and her daughter out of Iraq to a place of safety to start a new life, though she cannot understand the way Sara wishes to remain a practising Muslim after all that has happened to her
My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were that though it was about a heavy, serious subject it had been quite a light read. There were occasions in the book were I felt irritated by the characters, the way UN money was being spent to wine & dine local officials when it should have been spent on other things. There were times I wanted to reach into the book and give both Nadia and Sara a good shake by the shoulders for them to think before acting.
Summing up, Fundamentally, was an interesting, humorous, human take on a fictional UN representative trying to create a test programme in Iraq for ISIS brides and the possibilities of their deradicalisation & return to their homelands & family.
ALTERNATIVE COVER
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