Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction (1997) is a novel by Luke Davies. The novel follows an unnamed narrator and his relationship with Candy, his girlfriend and later wife, and their addiction to heroin. The novel was loosely based on Luke Davies' own troubles with addiction and after the release of a movie adaptation of the novel Australian painter Megan Bannister, Davies' ex-wife, identified herself as the inspiration for Candy. In 2006 the novel was adapted into a movie directed by Neil Armfield from a script by Davies starring Heath Ledger as the narrator and Abbie Cornish as Candy. Summary An unnamed narrator who is addicted to heroin introduces his beloved blonde girlfriend, Candy, to the drug. Early in their relationship the couple try to detox separately, with the narrator staying in Sydney while Candy returns home to Melbourne to stay clean. While Candy succeeds the narrator fails to stay clean and when she returns home she quickly relapses. After pawning their possessions for drugs fails to procure them the necessary amount of money to secure a hit of heroin, a pawnbroker offers Candy cash for sex, which she accepts. Learning that someone from their social circle works at a brothel, Candy takes up the work herself and quickly finds that she can earn up to a thousand dollars a day working as a prostitute and escort. The narrator runs small scams to try to supplement their income. With money for heroin temporarily secured, the couple decide to get married. Shortly after Candy becomes pregnant and though the two plan to quit heroin "tomorrow", by the time Candy is 5 months pregnant, they are still keeping up their habit. Candy has a miscarriage and the baby is stillborn. Candy goes from working in high end brothels and for wealthy clients to prostituting herself on the street. As their ability to procure heroin becomes more erratic, Candy tells the narrator she wants to quit prostitution. The narrator decides to provide for them by selling drugs and is able to purchase the recipe for making heroin off a professor friend of theirs, Casper. Though the narrator and Candy are able to successfully make heroin they are less successful at selling and end up using most of their product. Ironically now that they have a near endless supply of their drug of choice the narrator cannot enjoy it due to his collapsed