Books in the Brewery Subiaco - Oct: Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle

Book of the Month: A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle

Books in the Brewery is a free casual event combining great beer with good chat and an Aussie novel. Readers and drinkers are invited to take part in a guided conversation with our resident host.

Subiaco meetings will be held at 6pm on the second Wednesday of the month.

Adult readers of all experience are invited to think and talk about books in a safe and encouraging space. Expect to be discussing books from both award-winning Australian authors and new voices from around the country.

About the book: '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

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, 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

Host or Publisher Golden West Brewing Co.