Nussaibah Younis and Jonathan Coe

Debut novelist Nussaibah Younis and established writer Jonathan Coe discuss their work including why Coe is an admirer of Younis’s dark and humourous first work, Fundamentally, an exploration of love, family, religion, radicalism and belonging.

Nadia heads for a UN job in Iraq after being disowned by her mother and dumped by her lover. Her job is to rehabilitate ISIS women and she becomes mired in the opaque world of international aid and surrounded by bumbling colleagues. She meets Sara, a precocious East Londoner who joined ISIS at 15 and is struck by how similar their stories are.

‘Fundamentally is certainly a wild ride, but besides being one of the most entertaining novels I’ve read in a long while, it will also leave you deeply moved and (incidentally) much better informed than you were before about one of the key political crises of our time.’ Jonathan Coe

Younis spent ten years working in academia, think-tanks and peacebuilding in the Middle East before giving it up to write her novel. Coe is the bestselling author of 15 novels including The Accidental Woman, What a Carve Up!, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in France, and The House of Sleep, winner of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Best Novel award and the French Prix Médicis. He speaks about his latest, The Proof of my Innocence, at another festival event.

This event is part of a series in which a debut novelist discusses their work with an established writer who is championing them.