Darling Humans: A Memoir

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By Grace Heers

Stunningly powerful — raw and luminous.

In the untamed heart of Sydney's Kings Cross—a world of addiction, fleeting pleasures, and dark secrets—would-be writer Grace Heers abandons conventional life to seek her muse on the streets. In a place that never sleeps, the non-stop party draws her deeper into its wildness.

Grace gets up close, a hunter–gather fossicking through the wreckage for human stories. What she finds is achingly raw: the characters flaunt their addictions and traumas while offering up their resilience and humanity.

As Grace pushes deeper, intent on uncovering the forbidden, she's forced to confront the shadow she's been running from. Her obsession with the streets compels her, but over time, she begins to recognise her cravings running through the ravaged bodies around her.

In a place where destruction thrives, can she discover a way to break free?

Darling Humans is the story of a woman choosing to save her life, piece by piece, a tender reckoning, an unflinching journey through grief, survival, and the type of courage that doesn't look away from damage—but rather finds beauty in it.

Along the way, she finds sobriety, connection, and the truth that we are all deeply flawed and magnificently human. A poignant tribute to those who have fallen through life's cracks, the memoir invites readers to partake in the tenderness and brutality of humanity and to fall in love with all of us.: darling humans.

WHY I WROTE DARLING HUMANS

The humans who inhabited the fringes of Kings Cross were invisible. Passersby averted their eyes. Refused to notice them. Acknowledge their existence.

The proposition hit as I walked the streets, as if it had been waiting on a Kings Cross corner for someone to seduce: their stories were to be told, someone was to pay homage to the street community. 

I was drawn in. The idea had lips and legs and a heartbeat. I said yes and became that one. This is the story I was meant to write.