Fundamentally : Shortlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction

Author: Younis, Nussaibah

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 25 February 2025 by Orion Publishing Co (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 336 pages
162 x 241 x 32 | 536g

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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 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