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

A state he couldn’t even remember. A state he’d only seen through Skype and postcards from his mother’s family every Eid. A state he knew no more about than the people who hated him for having been born there. That, Yazid thought sometimes, was the worst part—he was the foreigner who couldn’t even remember the enemy.


“My parents came to Britain when I was two,” he continued. “I grew up in Bradford. My younger brother was born there.” He didn’t mention the accident or the children’s home. One thing at a time.


“It must be difficult,” she said. “Being…you know.” She lowered her voice. “Gay.”


“Well, the mechanics are a little different, but…”


“Yaz!” Ali exclaimed, elbowing him in the side. Mrs Archer simply blinked. “Mum, he’s not Muslim. He doesn’t go to mosque or anything.”


“But if you’re from Iraq, dear…”


Chapter 10