'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, these 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 fashions.
'A Language of Limbs is about love and how it's policed, friendship and how it transcends, and hilarity in the face of heartbreak - the jokes you tell as you're dying and the ways laughing at a funeral softens the edges of our grief. 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.' (Publication summary)
Dylin Hardcastle Has Found Their Own Voice
Michael Williams
(interviewer),
2024
28523881
2024
single work
podcast
interview
'Dylin Hardcastle has been publishing their writing since they were 21, having now completed a memoir, a book of YA fiction and two novels. In their latest work, Dylin takes the reader back to 1972, and across three decades, explores the parallel lives of two women, shaped by their contrasting experiences of desire. This week, Michael sits down with Dylin Hardcastle for a wide-ranging conversation about this new novel, A Language of Limbs.' (Production summary)
'The latest novel from Australian writer Dylin Hardcastle begins in gasping poetic fragments of desire and discovery for a teenage girl whose life is then ripped apart by her mother's scream and father's violent rejection.'
'In early 1971, two Newcastle teenagers are overcome with sapphic appetites. Each is inflamed with lust for her childhood best friend, the literal girl next door. What to do about this forbidden desire? The first – Limb One – acts on her hunger. She enjoys a golden summer of covert fucking, before being discovered by her parents in flagrante delicto. After being beaten and kicked out of home, she hitches a ride to Sydney. True to herself, she is homeless and alone at sixteen. The second – Limb Two – follows the more well-worn path of repression. She buries her desires, acquires a boyfriend, studies hard. The good girl, beloved by her parents. One conundrum, two choices. How will the dice fall?' (Introduction)
'In early 1971, two Newcastle teenagers are overcome with sapphic appetites. Each is inflamed with lust for her childhood best friend, the literal girl next door. What to do about this forbidden desire? The first – Limb One – acts on her hunger. She enjoys a golden summer of covert fucking, before being discovered by her parents in flagrante delicto. After being beaten and kicked out of home, she hitches a ride to Sydney. True to herself, she is homeless and alone at sixteen. The second – Limb Two – follows the more well-worn path of repression. She buries her desires, acquires a boyfriend, studies hard. The good girl, beloved by her parents. One conundrum, two choices. How will the dice fall?' (Introduction)
'The latest novel from Australian writer Dylin Hardcastle begins in gasping poetic fragments of desire and discovery for a teenage girl whose life is then ripped apart by her mother's scream and father's violent rejection.'
Dylin Hardcastle Has Found Their Own Voice
Michael Williams
(interviewer),
2024
28523881
2024
single work
podcast
interview
'Dylin Hardcastle has been publishing their writing since they were 21, having now completed a memoir, a book of YA fiction and two novels. In their latest work, Dylin takes the reader back to 1972, and across three decades, explores the parallel lives of two women, shaped by their contrasting experiences of desire. This week, Michael sits down with Dylin Hardcastle for a wide-ranging conversation about this new novel, A Language of Limbs.' (Production summary)
