A Language of Limbs
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE STELLA PRIZE 2025
'I loved it' Hannah Kent
'An instant queer classic' Benjamin Law
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.
'Poetic, fresh and mesmerising . . . I am desperate for more stories like this' Jessie Stephens
LONGLISTED FOR THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK DESIGN AWARDS 2025 BEST DESIGNED LITERARY FICTION/POETRY COVER
Praise for A Language of Limbs
'A life-affirming, deeply felt novel of the decisions we make and the lives that unspool from them. To read A Language of Limbs is to be reminded of the power of queer joy and community. I loved it.' Hannah Kent
'Poetic, fresh and mesmerising, Hardcastle's work is like nothing I have ever read. A Language of Limbs is full of feeling; a love story about the family we make ourselves. Upon finishing this book I was overwhelmed by a sense of, more. I am desperate for more stories like this.' Jessie Stephens
'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
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hardcastle's stunning debut follows a 15-year-old girl in 1972 Australia across two alternate timelines: one where she embraces her queerness and one where she rejects it. In the former version, the unnamed narrator is beaten by her father and kicked out of her home after her parents catch her having sex with her best friend. She's rescued from living on the street by a man named Dave, who affectionately nicknames her Little Dave and invites her into his queer found family. As the years pass, she's surrounded by joy and learns to accept herself despite such bitter injustices and catastrophes as AIDS, which ravages Dave's household. In the second timeline, the narrator suppresses her feelings for her best friend and sabotages their friendship by dating a boy. After university, she falls in love a writer named Thomas and they move in together. Though she's happy with how easy it is to conform to a conventional life, she remains troubled by her lingering feelings for women, and her life with Thomas is surprisingly and tragically upended by the AIDS crisis. Hardcastle handily crafts two distinct voices for the alternating story lines, revealing the ripple effects of choosing one path over another. It's a captivating display of how one decision can shape a life.
