A Language of Limbs - by Dylin Hardcastle (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"The prose is textured, viscous almost, an ooze of sweet honey shot through with golden light . . . A Language of Limbs is a novel of (impeccable) vibes and mood, a gay hymnal written from inside the guts of the two protagonists."
--Yves Rees, Australian Book Review

A breathtaking, sliding-doors, will-they-won't-they love story and a tender epic that explores the weight of a choice, the love of community and how joy is found in even the darkest corners.
 
Newcastle, Australia, 1972. On a sticky summer night, a choice must be made: To give in to queer desire or suppress it? To venture into the unknown or stay the course? In alternating chapters, we trace the two versions of a life that follow.
 
In one, a teenage girl is caught kissing her neighbor and is kicked out from her home. She lands at a queer communal home in Sydney called Uranian House, where she meets the people who will forever become her family. Meanwhile, in the second, a teenage girl pushes down her lustful dreams of her best friend and eventually makes her way to a university in Sydney to study English literature.
 
During pivotal moments, the physical space between these two women closes--like when they each meet the first great loves of their lives in 1977 at a protest, or when, almost a decade later, they are both rushed to the hospital with only a curtain between them. Through the AIDS crisis--and from classrooms to art galleries, beds to bars and hospitals to homes--we witness these two lives shadow each other until, finally and poignantly, they collide.

Review Quotes

Most Anticipated by The Nerd Daily and LGBTQ Reads

Shortlisted for Dymocks Book of the Year 2024

"A Language of Limbs is a queer novel in vital, masterful conversation with itself, and Hardcastle's visceral, propulsive prose inexorably and generously draws the reader into this conversation--about the violence of metamorphosis, the joyful confusion between self and other, and all the ways we strive to create meaning on the spectrum between chance and destiny. This book will stay with you."
--Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, author of Mutual Interest

"A Language of Limbs is an ecstatic world of a queer love story. Hardcastle's vivid prose transported me to a queer past and future rooted in community and love, even amid grief. Sprawling yet exquisitely intimate."
--Jules Ohman, author of Body Grammar

"Visceral and provocative. Mind-blowing and awe-inspiring. A fantastic achievement."
--Soula Emmanuel, author of Wild Geese

"Dylin's writing is deeply evocative, sensual, and profound... I would love to read [A Language of Limbs], as if for the first time, again and again and again."
--Ella Baxter, author of Woo Woo, for Shelf Awareness

"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, author of Gaysia

"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, author of Heartsick

"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, author of Burial Rites

"An epic tale of Sapphic pleasure, pain and activism."
--The Big Issue (Australia)

"Tender and steamy . . . [A] story of aching almost, deep grief and exuberant joy that will appeal to readers of Emily Danforth and Jeanette Winterson . . . Hardcastle writes with all sensual faculties and earnestly depicts the full-on force of female desires."
--Books and Publishing (Australia)

About the Author

Dylin Hardcastle (they/them) is an award-winning author, artist, and screenwriter. They are the author of Below Deck (2020), Breathing Under Water (2016), and Running Like China (2015). Their work has been published to critical acclaim in eleven territories and translated into eight languages. A Language of Limbs won the Kathleen Mitchell Award through the Australia Council for the Arts. The novel has been optioned by Curio (Sony Pictures) and is in development.