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