Because of him we’d spent the last three years just moving from one crappy flat to another. We’d lived all over the city and I’d been to so many different schools that I couldn’t even remember them all. I was always the new kid thanks to him. I hated him.

When David and his mother move to a predominantly Asian part of town to escape his abusive dad, he braces himself for starting at another new school. He makes a couple of friends, but finds himself the victim of racist bullies who hate him because he’s white. On top of that, it looks like his dad might have figured out where he lives.

Them and Us tackles issues relevant to young adults today – racism, friendship, broken families – and does not gloss over the messiness of real life.

Bali Rai has won the Angus, Stockport, Leicester and North East Book Awards. His books include The Last Taboo, Killing Honour and The Gun. Bali Rai is Britain’s leading Asian writer for teenage readers, and has been published in ten languages.