‘By normal, you mean like you? A slag with a saviour complex?’
‘Funny, gripping and compassionate’
Dolly Alderton
‘A breath of fresh air’
Marian Keyes
‘Essential reading’
Jonathan Coe
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.
‘Funny, gripping and compassionate’
Dolly Alderton
‘A breath of fresh air’
Marian Keyes
‘Essential reading’
Jonathan Coe
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.
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Reviews
Not only hysterically funny but trenchant and necessary. I loved it
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
So incredibly funny that you only realise afterwards how much you've learned
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
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.
Clever and thoughtful: passionate but clear-eyed, confronting but nuanced, enlightening and. . . very funny
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
A wickedly sharp and engrossing exploration of family, friendship and life's messy ambiguities. Tender, funny and unexpected. I loved it
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
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
Bold yet subtle, witty and constantly surprising: such an impressive debut
Trenchant, funny and fearless
Absolutely hilarious - a Muslim Fleabag
A white-hot critique of international aid, with side-splitting prose
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 new name to watch out for
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
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
The debut of the year
Funny, gripping and compassionate; Fundamentally is a truly original novel that you won't be able to put down
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.
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?