Serenity Booksellers are thrilled to be welcoming Nussaibah Younis to Stockport to discuss her debut work of fiction Fundamentally. Tipped to be one of the most talked about books of 2025, it’s a bold and unforgettable novel about ISIS brides that is not only outrageously funny but also deeply moving and illuminating.

Nussaibah will be in conversation with Tawseef Khan (Determination) and discussing her work as well as her career as a peacebuilding practitioner that helped inform her novel. The talk will be followed by an audience Q&A and booksigning.

Tickets are £5.00 each or £16.99 including a copy of Fundamentally. Light refreshments are included in the ticket price.

Event starts at 6:30pm (doors at 6pm)

About the author:

Dr Nussaibah Younis is a peacebuilding practitioner and a globally recognised expert on contemporary Iraq. For several years, she advised the Iraqi government on proposed programs to de-radicalise women affiliated with ISIS. She studied at Oxford, Durham and Harvard Universities, and has a PhD in International Affairs. Dr Younis was a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, where she directed the Task Force on the Future of Iraq. She has published Op-Eds in the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, and the New York Times. She was born in the UK to an Iraqi father and a Pakistani mother, and currently lives in London.

About the book:

When academic Nadia is disowned by her puritanical mother and dumped by her lover, 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.

But then Nadia meets Sara, a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just fifteen, and she is struck by how similar their stories are. Both from a Muslim background, both feisty and opinionated, with a shared love of Dairy Milk and rude pick-up lines, Sara and Nadia immediately connect and a powerful friendship forms. When Sara confesses a secret, Nadia is forced to make a difficult choice.

A bitingly original, wildly funny and razor-sharp exploration of love, family, religion, radicalism, and the decisions we make in pursuit of connection and belonging, Fundamentally upends and explores a defining controversy of our age with heart, complexity and humour – delivered by one of the most fearless and talented new voices in contemporary fiction.