On the cobbled streets, below the dreaming spires of Oxford, where titans of industry and world leaders are formed, a cancer creeps insidiously, hidden beneath the genteel veneer and personified in Dan, addicted to crack and causing carnage in the community. At just eighteen Dan has known real pain, having never stood a chance with the start in life he’d had at the Temple Cowley end of the city. His girlfriend, Katie, though from wealthy parents and brought up in splendour in Summertown, North Oxford, is also addicted to hard drugs and doing things she never envisaged in order to feed her habit. Dan’s mum, Sharon, clean for eleven years, is at her wits’ end and riddled with guilt for her failings during Dan’s formative years. Supported by her friends, Cyril and Naomi, she prays she never gets the dreaded knock on the door she fears so much.
Sloane weaves together Moore’s idea which explores themes of guilt, shame and culpability that will leave the reader pondering for some time afterward.
