Show Notes
Writer and peacebuilding practitioner Dr Nussaibah Younis joins Tom’s Book Club to discuss her debut novel Fundamentally.
The novel follows Nadia, an academic who escapes a painful breakup by taking a UN job in Iraq, where she’s tasked with helping to deradicalise ISIS brides. Amid the bureaucratic absurdity of aid work, she forms an unexpected bond with Sara, a young British woman who joined ISIS at just fifteen — a relationship that begins to challenge Nadia’s assumptions, loyalties and sense of belonging.
In this extended conversation, Younis talks about drawing on her own experience working in Iraq and about the decision to adapt that material into fiction. She also reflects on humour, politics, and what novels can do that policy papers cannot.
Fundamentally comes out in paperback this week. 📚 Buy books discussed on the podcast through the Tom’s Book Club Bookshop.org page: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/TomsBookClub
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