The first love of a teenage girl is a powerful thing, particularly when the object of that desire is her best friend, also a girl. It’s the kind of power that could implode a family, a friendship, a life.
On a quiet summer night in Newcastle, 1972, a choice must be made: to act upon these desires, or suppress them? To live an openly queer life, or to try desperately not to?
Over the following three decades, two lives almost intersect in pivotal moments, the distance between them at times drawing so thin they nearly collide.
Against the backdrop of an era including Australia’s first Mardi Gras and the AIDS pandemic, we see these two lives ebb and flow, with joy and grief and loss and desire, until at last they come together in the most beautiful and surprising of ways.
A Language of Limbs is about love and how it’s policed, friendship and how it transcends, and hilarity in the face of heartbreak. An unashamed celebration of queer life in all its vibrancy and colour, this story finds the humanity in all of us, and demands we claim our futures for ourselves.
Dylin Hardcastle is an author, artist and screenwriter. They are the author of three critically acclaimed books. Their first adult novel, Below Deck, was published in ten territories.
Dylin is the co-creator, co-writer and co-director of the TV show Cloudy River. In 2018, they were a Provost’s Scholar and a research assistant in World Literature at the University of Oxford. Dylin is currently completing their PhD in Creative Writing.
Dylin has travelled to Antarctica, South America and Europe for artist residencies, and has exhibited their paintings widely across Australia and the UK. A Language of Limbs has been optioned and is in development with Curio (Sony Pictures).
“Dylin Hardcastle’s novel carried me away like a tidal current. Expansive across time, yet intimate in its focus, A Language of Limbs is that rare book that’s equally poetic and propulsive – with twin protagonists who are impossible to shake. Nothing short of an instant queer classic.” – Benjamin Law
A Language of Limbs is published by Pan Macmillan Australia (Picador) and is available for all leading book sellers including QBD Books.
Image: A Language of Limbs – courtesy of Pan Macmillan Australia (Picador)