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

“The day we went shopping with Kevin and Harry.”


“I needed to get my head around it!”


“Fucking hell, Ali, you’re meant to talk to me about this shit! Not fucking keep it a secret and fuck off up to Leeds to have a chat with your total nut job of a brother!”


“It’s none of your business if I go to see my brother!” Ali retorted hotly. What little of his temper had stayed out of the argument surged up in a wave of blistering fury. “Who do you think you are, my—”


“Your fucking partner, who sets off fucking airport scanners because of your sodding brother!” Yazid shouted.


“Why?” Yazid bellowed. “Did you think hearing him admit he wanted to bash my fucking brains out was going to make you think, ‘Yeah, okay, I’ll donate marrow to this guy.’ What the hell were you thinking?”


Chapter 42