Book Club Meets: I could have been radicalised! ISIS brides and teen angst, with Nussaibah Younis

Happy Place with Fearne Cotton

Friday, 2 January 2026 - 41 minutes

Fundamentally tells the story of Nadia, an academic who's been disowned by her puritanical mother and dumped by her lover, so she decides to get away by accepting a UN job in Iraq.Meanwhile, Sara is a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just fifteen, and Nadia is astounded at how similar they both are: they’re feisty and opinionated, they’re from a Muslim background, and they both love a Dairy Milk and rude pick-up lines...In this Book Club chat with Fearne, author Nussaibah Younis explains how she managed to write an incredibly funny book based on her own experience of creating a de-radicalisation programme... Satire and comedy, she says, is vital in examining tough topics.They also natter about how you’d react if you had to hang out with your teenage self, and why doing the job you love can sometimes mean giving up a little bit of yourself.Thank you to Weidenfeld & Nicolson for the use of the Fundamentally audiobook, narrated by Sarah Slimani.If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like:Book Club Meets: Elizabeth Day Book Club Meets: Elizabeth Gilbert Book Club Meets: Aisha Muharrar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.