Eye of the Needle

by Christopher Raja

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.

Text Publishing, 2026