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”I’d heard that ISIS considered white converts to be the most desirable brides. Imagine feeling Europe for the land of Islam, and you’re still second fiddle to some white girl who’s lost control of her gap year.��


Nadia, disowned by her mother and dumped by her best friend X lover, accepts a job in Iraq with the task of de-radicalising ISIS brides. She meets Sarah, who joined ISIS at 15, and has the desperate urge to help her beyond her original scope. What could possibly go wrong?

Obviously, this is a minefield of a topic. Thankfully, as a globally recognised expert on Iraq who proposed programmes to rehabilitate women affiliated with ISIS, Younis is exactly the right person to attack it.

This book is extremely millennial, but in a self-aware way; that takes a Glamour / East London Bridget Jones approach to discussing sitting on faces and admiring Bin Laden’s beard. It’s brash and offensive, but with absolutely buckets of care for these vulnerable women in such a precarious situation.

The heart of the story is the women: a mother who temporarily disowns her daughter; said daughter semi coping with it; a queer relationship between two best friends, each with very different ideas of what it means; a boss and her team member, both belittled in the workplace for being women; and, ultimately, between a UN worker who sees so much of herself in an ex-Londoner ISIS bride.

Certainly one to watch out for in 2025.