If you could save someone's life, would you? Anyone's? Ali's older brother has a swastika tattooed on his knuckles, a prison ID number for nearly beating an immigrant to death, and spent his teenage years ruthlessly persecuting Ali for being gay. Blood may be thicker than water, but Ali has spent most of his life desperate to prove he is nothing like Tony. A committed vegetarian, charity-supporter, and blood donor, Ali would do anything for anyone. Ali may share parentage with Tony, but he’s determined not to share anything else if he can help it. So when Tony contracts leukaemia, and Ali is the only match for the urgently-needed bone marrow transplant, Ali is caught between two equally awful choices: to refuse and condemn a man to death, or to donate. And in donating, save the life of the man who nearly murdered Ali's Iraqi boyfriend?

Thicker Than Bone

“Oh right, yeah—you’re from Bradford, that’s even worse.”


“I’m from Mosul, you racist imbecile.”


“Oh, shut up before I smother you,” Ali threatened, shoving Yazid—and then, deciding that that position would be preferable, forcing him onto his back and spreading out over him like a blanket. “There. Now shut your face and hug me.”


“Wow,” Yazid said, even as his arms snaked around Ali’s back and he did as he was ordered. “I feel so loved right now. I am basking in the warmth of your love. I am the most cherished man in the entire…”


“I said shut up,” Ali whined. He twisted his face to kiss Yazid’s bare skin. “I’ll think about going up to Leeds.”


“We could catch the train up for this weekend, then sort out a proper visit. Trial run kind of thing.”


Ali turned it over in his head, his mother’s choked, anguished voice on the other end of the line ringing in his head. No matter what he thought of Tony, their mother had never once stopped loving him. God only knew why.


Chapter 7