*SHORTLISTED CARNEGIE MEDAL 2025**SHORTLISTED WATERSTONES CHILDREN’S BOOK PRIZE 2025**SHORTLISTED BRANFORD BOASE AWARD 2025**SHORTLISTED UKLA AWARD 2025**A 2025 READ FOR EMPATHY BOOK*’Tenderness itself, a song to love and friendship.’ Andrew O’Hagan ‘Stunning.’

Hopeful, heartbreaking and ultimately joyful.’ Simon James Green ‘As if you are reading your own heart written upon the page.’ Non Pratt.
Two boys can’t remember the last time they had a hug. Meet Finlay. He’s studying for his nursing degree at Glasgow University, against all the odds.

But coming straight from care means he has no support network. How can he write essays, find paid work and NOT fall for the beautiful boy at uni, when he’s struggling to even feed himself? Meet Banjo.

He’s trying to settle in with his new foster family and finish high school.

But he can’t forget all that has happened, and his anger and fear keep boiling over. How can he hold on to the one good person in his life, when his outbursts keep threatening his already uncertain future? Can Finlay and Banjo let go of the past before it drags them under?