Darlo

It's the 1980's and Darlinghurst is home to the truly cool and those just keeping it together, to the up and coming and the down and out.

In the gaudy whirl of 'darlo', Matthew looks no further than the bottom rung, aided by the occasional bottle, while Melanie is steering clear of drugs one day at a time. With help from Jesus, a local eccentric who makes the worst coffee in the world, Melanie and Matthew find each other. Cautiously feeling their way into a relationship, they struggle to learn to trust again.

Meanwhile 'darlo' is changing around them, as urban renewal brings in a brittle, cashed-up, cosmopolitan air to the seedy, seamy streets of a close and vibrant community. Will Matthew and Melanie make it, or lose it?

darlo by Rowan Hagen, is a truly Australian love story. Its rich cast of desperately hopeful characters are as real and present today as they were in the 80s.

Rowan Hagen has been writing since she learned to form a sentence, drawing on her own life experiences to breathe life into her complex, hopelessly hopeful characters. She writes for all the usual high-minded, creative reasons, and also because it is hellishly good fun. darlo is her first novel a she is busy on her next.

Darlo
A&A Book Publishing
Author: Rowan Hagen
RRP: $24.95