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'In playwright and social worker Mick Cummins’ debut novel, So Close to Home, we meet eighteen-year-old Aaron Peters in the throes of heroin withdrawal. An ‘incoming tide of pain’ causes him to shiver in warm rooms; noise becomes unbearable, drowning out the possibility of coherent thought. The novel continues to introduce us to a cast of supporting characters, who each flit in and out of Aaron’s life. The constant is his mother, Vicky, a hairdresser who we learn has kicked her son out of the family home because of his drug use. They see each other on occasion; Cummins sketches out tender scenes where Vicky cuts Aaron’s hair or washes his clothes. Then there’s Samantha, a schizophrenic ‘hanger-on’ who is partnered to Dave, Aaron’s neighbour at the boarding house where he resides. Dave is also a heroin user, as is Zoe—a single mother fighting to regain custody of her child.' (Introduction)
