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Fundamentally
Fundamentally: A Novel | Nussaibah Younis
5 posts | 4 read | 1 reading | 10 to read
A wickedly funny and audacious debut novel following an academic who flees from heartbreak and lands in Iraq with an insane job offeronly to be forced to do the work of confronting herself. When Dr. Nadia Amin, a long-suffering academic, publishes an article on the possibility of rehabilitating ISIS brides, the United Nations comes calling, offering an opportunity to lead a deradicalization program for the ISIS-affiliated women held in Iraqi refugee camps. Looking for a way out of London after a painful, unexpected breakup, Nadia leaps at the chance. In Iraq, Nadia quickly realizes shes in over her head. Her direct reports are hostile and unenthused about taking orders from an obvious UN novice, and the murmurs of deradicalization being inherently unethical and possibly illegal threaten to end Nadias UN career before it even begins. Frustrated by her situation and the unrelenting heat, Nadia decides to visit the camp with her sullen team, composed of Goody Two-shoes Sherri who never passes up an opportunity to remind Nadia of her objections; and Pierre, a snippy Frenchman who has no qualms about perpetually scrolling through Grindr. At the camp, after a clumsy introductory session with the ISIS women, Nadia meets Sara, one of the younger refugees, whose accent immediately gives her away as a fellow East Londoner. From their first interaction, Nadia feels inexplicably drawn to the rude girl in the diamant headscarf. She leaves the camp determined to get Sara home. But the system Nadia finds herself trapped in is a quagmire of inaction and corruption. One accomplishment barely makes a dent in Nadias ultimate goal of freeing Sara . . . and the other women, too, of course. And so, Nadia makes an impossible decision leading to ramifications she could have never imagined. A triumph of dark humor, Fundamentally asks bold questions: Who can tell someone what to believe? And how do you save someone who doesnt want to be saved?
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ChaoticMissAdventures
ChaoticMissAdventures
Fundamentally: A Novel | Nussaibah Younis
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Pickpick

Book 5 #WP25

I loved this!! The biting humor (jokes about Elizabeth Warren's 1/8 Cherokee claims, sandstorms being micro dermabrasion, and milkshakes for Nigel Farage) mixed with a more serious and deep ideas around the UN, aide workers, and extreme Islamists.
Younis worked in Iraq for 10 years as an aide worker. This unique perspective allows for the author to be one of the few who can accurately and compassionately tell this story.

ChaoticMissAdventures This truly is very funny, I laughed out loud a few times catching weird glances from people in my neighborhood 😂. I appreciate how diverse her characters are, she draws them realistically and lively. Her writing is straightforward but not stodgy and never cold. You can tell she cares very much for these women many of us rarely think of. 4.5/5⭐ 23h
squirrelbrain Great review! 19h
BarbaraBB Great review. I‘ll definitely read it too! 18h
TrishB Ordered this yesterday 👍🏻 16h
41 likes3 stack adds4 comments
review
TheKidUpstairs
TheKidUpstairs
Fundamentally: A Novel | Nussaibah Younis
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Pickpick

Sharp, thoughtful, and darkly funny. Nadia is an academic who heads to Iraq to work with the UN on the deradicalization of ISIS brides, but also to run away from heartbreak and grapple with her own history with religion and rebellion. Fundamentally tackles ideas of religion, racism, belonging, bureaucracy and systemic failures within the foreign aid systems without prescribing answers, 👇 cont'd in comments

TheKidUpstairs ... instead presenting genuine, human characters trying to figure things out in the grey areas of life. A solid start to my #wpf25 long list reading! 2d
Amor4Libros I loved this one!! 2d
ChaoticMissAdventures I am about 1/3 in and loving this! So sharp and funny. 2d
squirrelbrain Great - looking forward to this even more now! 2d
BarbaraBB So much praise for this book. I must get my hands on a copy! 2d
59 likes4 stack adds5 comments
blurb
ChaoticMissAdventures
ChaoticMissAdventures
Fundamentally: A Novel | Nussaibah Younis
post image

#WP25
“I was asked by the Iraqi government to design a program to deradicalize ISIS women. It got me thinking about my years as a religious teenager. When I was seventeen, I studied with the cleric Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American preacher who was smart, charming and inspiring. He later joined Al-Qaeda. I‘d always wondered what I‘d have done, in those naïve teenage years, had he tried to recruit me.“

ChaoticMissAdventures I am starting this book now on audio, and a couple of chapters in I am hooked. I found this interview quoted above on this oxford site: https://www.english.ox.ac.uk/spotlight-alumni-dr-nussaibah-younis

She is a doctor, she really did design a program to deradicalize ISIS women., and she is a globally recognized expert on contemporary Iraq.

How impressive! 3d
dabbe Wowza! 🤩🙌🏻🤩 3d
TheKidUpstairs Thanks for sharing the article. I'm just about finished this one and love it. You can tell how deeply she knows these characters, and the grey areas of their lives. And she is freakin' funny! 2d
ChaoticMissAdventures @TheKidUpstairs so glad you liked it! I have it on audio and just got a few minutes in yesterday, but it is gorgeous here today so I can do some neighborhood walk and listens! 2d
36 likes1 stack add4 comments
review
Amor4Libros
Amor4Libros
Fundamentally: A Novel | Nussaibah Younis
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Pickpick

This book was parts funny while dealing with a serious subject. I found that this approach taken by the author was the right one.

I loved Nadia and her eagerness to make a difference, while at the same time fighting with her own trauma. I am also glad that everything I thought I had figured out about Sara was way off the mark 😅

The secondary characters were also the right amount of great/complex/messed up to keep you on your toes.

4⭐️

Amor4Libros US Pub Date: 2/25/25 2w
55 likes1 comment
review
TheEllieMo
TheEllieMo
Fundamentally: A Novel | Nussaibah Younis
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Pickpick

Finished this yesterday and have been trying to process my feelings about it since. It tackles some deep subjects with a levity that makes the book seem trite at times, but there are some dark themes running through the story so it needs some humour to lighten it. On the whole, I enjoyed it, and felt invested in the friendship between the two MCs, especially towards the end.

Book 7/60 #Read2025 @DieAReader
Book 7/5 #JumpStart2025 @Lizpixie

TheEllieMo Ran out of space to say this is #LetterF of #LitsyAtoZ @texreader 1mo
Texreader Fantastic!! Great review too 1mo
27 likes1 stack add2 comments