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13-27 Aug 25
Funny and devastating, often at the same time.
Nadia flees a lecturing position and broken heart in the UK for her dream job founding a program to deradicalise ISIS brides held in Iraqi camps. Her naivety and the complexity of issues of radicalism, accountability and belonging leads to some madcap situations. My favourite part was the other UN workers recalling their various hysterical, frustrating and heartbreaking failures.

Fascinatingly funny and horrific. The characterisation here is wonderful. Nadia, the narrator, gets her dream job: working for the UN in Iraq, deradicalising Isis brides. She chimes with Sara a girl who left London at 15 and ended up being married to three men. The UN staff seem to spend their down time drinking heavily etc. The story is told so well, highly recommended.

For me, humour is the ultimate humaniser & I thought this book used it to perfection. The bureaucracies & corruption of the UN, British Embassy & Iraqi ministries were believable, comic & infuriating all at once. I liked the way it dealt with the role of the media. The main thing I take away from the book is how, in spite of the ways we other one another, people are people - whatever our culture/religion a lot of our behaviour is very similar⬇️

I had not heard about Isis brides till I opened this book. These are girls who were groomed to be exploited. After the war, these displaced widows were placed in camps. They were considered a danger to their native countries.

I think I read it with my mouth gaped open the whole time. Did this really happen? Apparently, it was fiction. Most of the ISIS brides were Syrians and Iraqis, but there were deradicalization programs to help these women.

Sorry if I've been spamming you all with review videos lately, but if you're interested in a more thorough discussion of Fundamentally, I tried to capture my thoughts in this video:

https://youtu.be/g8UTKTEjYIM?feature=shared

It is spoiler-free and one of those books that I really do think deserves a wide readership.

Expect dark humour.

Incredible.

Fundamentally is a scathing indictment of bureaucracy that tackles some big themes and poses some big questions.

It lampoons both the system and the individuals that make it up. It's Kafkaesque, morally grey, and satirical in a way that's exaggerated enough for it to be funny, but close enough to be horribly heart sinkingly plausible in its characterisations & depictions of corruption.

And yet, the ending... [see comments]

Just a sample of the writing and commentary offered in this book that tackles rehabilitation of women who joined ISIS.

In desperate need to leave London after a breakup, Nadia decides to take on a job in Iraq with the UN to deradicalise women affiliated with ISIS. Things doesn‘t go as planned when she meets Sara who reminds her of herself when she was the same age, and things escalate from there.

If the description of the internal workings of the UN is even remotely close to the truth, they don‘t come off particularly good. I was shocked actually.

Shortlisted for the #WomensPrize but unfortunately I didn‘t fully connect with this one. De-radicilazation, but make it rom-com? Our MC is smart and punchy, making friends at the UN rehab program for ISIS brides. And she takes this job to distract from heartbreak. I know the author has experience with this work so it reads true but I didn‘t love the office politics vibes. Did appreciate the “I‘m coming to save you, oh wait you don‘t want saved?!”

I‘m not entirely sure what to make of this. Nadia, a criminology lecturer, lands a job with a new UN agency tasked with rehabilitating ISIS brides, and digs herself in deeper than intended. A really interesting topic, yet it‘s told in a light hearted comedic tone which I just could not get on with.There is, however, a lot to take away from this, although at the same time it wouldn‘t have been a WP short list choice for me. A light pick.

Two women from similar London Muslim backgrounds meet in a Syrian camp for isis brides. Nadia is a UN worker, an academic, who wants to derdicalise the women who have been living with isis husbands, often young and impressionable. Sara is one of those who joined isis. A book about a very important subject as states remove individual citizenship, but told in an accessible Manor with humour and from an informed writer. A good read.

This is a funny caper type book. I loved all the jokes. I have no idea how this made it to a prize shortlist but whatever.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Finally, a book on the #WP25 shortlist I actually like! (I loved The Safekeep, but read it well before the longlist dropped.) This one follows an idealistic young Muslim British woman who goes to Iraq with a UN program in the hopes of repatriating ISIS brides. It balances the heavier content with snarky good humor and looks at how our own expectations can be blinding.

The humor didn‘t always work for me but as I reflected on it I had to admit that the darkly funny approach worked better than a more earnest one would have. My reaction to this book fluctuated throughout my reading of it but in the end it had a lot to say and did so in a pretty clever way. #wpf25

Enjoying this airport buy so far! ☀️😍

There was something off about this book for me. While it covered some very serious matters - rehabbing ISIS brides, the bureaucratic waste of large agencies (UN in this case), the good intentions of those who choose to help, and how to mend broken relationships with mothers/families - I found the humor not as funny as suggested and some of the characters very annoying. Expected more from a Women‘s Prize shortlist novel. A very low pick for me.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I enjoyed this pick from the #WPF25 short list. British Muslim academic gets a job with the UN developing a deprogramming/re-entry program for ISIS brides in Iraq, gets in over her head, and hijinks and self-discovery ensue. I liked getting to know and root for the MC before it became clear (to me) how problematic some of her behavior was, and also appreciated it mostly came from a good place and not pure self-absorption.

I don‘t do this very often - just sit in a coffee shop taking up space and reading - but this Vermont gray weather requires that I do this today.

##womensprizeforfiction I am surprised this made the short list. It is a story unlike any I have read before. I found the tone super uneven. I liked it but did not love it. 3.5 🌟

An article from today‘s Observer magazine, covering the Fundamentally author‘s background and her reasons for turning to stand-up comedy and comedic writing.

I found this rather interesting and, having just finished the book, it definitely added context.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/30/the-death-of-my-friend-insp...

I‘m torn on this one. At first I found it wickedly funny and irreverent, but later on the MC acted really immaturely which served to diminish and over-simplify a really serious subject. (De-radicalisation of Isis brides)

I also felt that Islam was portrayed in a really negative way, with only 1 Muslim character having any redeeming features.

Ultimately, this is a pick, saved by its ending and the audacity in tackling the subject in such a way.

#WP25 Book 4

This was a delightful read despite the heavy subject: the rehabilitation of ISIS women in a camp in Iraq.
It‘s a perfect job for Nadia, who‘s escaping a life of partying hard in London. She used to be Muslim but doesn‘t believe any longer. She feels like she should safe Sara, one of the ISIS brides, and needs the help of her UN colleagues. I can‘t really explain what makes this book funny yet poignant but it certainly is.

Thanks #netgalley! I had zero expectation going into this Women‘s Prize longlister and was still surprised how much I liked it. A heartbroken young woman distracts herself from her feelings by taking a job with the UN rehabilitating ISIS brides. It‘s funny, and frustrating, and really made me think.

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.

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

#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.“

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⭐️

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