Eye of the Needle

A passionate story about the landscape of grief and the emergence of self by a distinctive new voice in Australian literary fiction.

In 1882 a young Afghan named Kadir lands in Port Augusta. He has arrived with six camels to make his fortune, and so becomes the transport for a scientific expedition into the red centre.

More than a century later a young man named Kris comes of age in the Melbourne suburbs, having emigrated from India with his family when he was just a boy. After the trauma of his father's mysterious death, Kris gravitates to St Kilda in search of a bigger world.

Fate will lead Kris to drugs and sex and love. He will learn what it truly takes to write a novel about the visionary life—the tale of a cameleer who comes across the seas from Asia and is drawn into the dazzling heart of the continent, where all is revealed—the ancient peoples, power and possession, lies and lust, faith, death, and what really matters.

Christopher Raja's Eye of the Needle is a spectacular novel about the force of desire and ambition, about what love does to us and what we will do for love.

Praise:

Compelling and vivid. Sydney Morning Herald on The Burning Elephant

A poignant story, widely accessible and skilfully told. Books+Publishing on Into the Suburbs

An emotional experience, heartbreaking yet hopeful. The Big Issue on Into the Suburbs

A deeply human exploration of exile, love and grief, narrated in a voice that rings clear as a bell. Meg Mundell on Into the Suburbs