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I had intensely mixed feelings about Fundamentally, Nussaibah Younis's debut novel. It follows academic Nadia, who, dealing with her estrangement from her Muslim mother and a sudden break-up with her long-term girlfriend, takes a job with the United Nations deradicalising ISIS women in Iraq. This serious subject-matter is at odds with Nadia's voice, which is deliberately irreverent ('I was in my thirties and I'd had enough sex to know that devout Muslims have tedious chat and give crap head'), especially when bantering with Sara, a three-time ISIS widow at just nineteen who's originally from East London ('"I vote for Bin Laden," she said, without missing a beat./"I know. That's the entire problem, babe."'). I think what Younis is trying to do here is, in some ways, really interesting. Nadia obviously has very heavy-duty psychological defences, and her flippancy is a way of dealing with deep pain, especially around her relationship with her mother. It's a shame, though, that when she lurches into honesty, the writing becomes a bit turgid. Witnessing an anti-government demonstration in Baghdad, she reflects 'A sickly feeling rose through me, the unmistakable sensation of being in the wrong. I wished I was out there with the protesters... It felt shitty being on this side of the bulletproof glass; institutionalised, feckless and corrupt'.

Younis is trying to pull off something very difficult in balancing Nadia's raw internal journey, her satirical struggle within the UN, and her relationship with Sara, which blends the two. It's not surprising that it doesn't always work, and I felt the pacing was a little at fault. The novel spends too long in the UN base (it's about 40% of the book) before Nadia gets to the women's camp, drawing on what is clearly a wealth of funny stories from Younis's decade working in Iraq, though she was not herself employed by the UN. The tone becomes almost farcical, which is well and good, but it doesn't leave enough time for the more interesting material nearer the end of the novel, when Nadia's negative attitude to what was once her faith is challenged when she realises she and Sara have vastly diverging views on Islam.

Given that Nadia was a devout Muslim into her twenties, her knowledge of Islam feels shallow and, as other reviewers have pointed out, risks playing into Western stereotypes. This obviously wasn't Younis's intention and, as she clearly knows far more about Islam than I do, I think the idea here was to show how Nadia's mental blocks have led her to use lazy quips about the religion rather than deal with the pain of her mother's rejection. I wish Younis had left herself more space to explore all this in the final third as, without spoilers, I found the climax of the novel really moving and it was a shame that it felt a little rushed. Fundamentally is refreshingly original and ambitious, even if it makes some missteps, and I'm looking forward to Younis's next. 3.5 stars.

I received a free proof copy of this novel from the publisher for review.