Eighteen year old Aaron is creative, resourceful and addicted to heroin. Kicked out of home by his mum and living rough on the streets of South Melbourne, he dreams of getting straight and starting again – but the system lets him down at every turn. Debut author and winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript, Mick Cummins, swings by the studio to talk about his soulful and humane novel So Close To Home, which is informed by his experience as a social worker.

So Close to Home is out now with Affirm Press.