In 1882 a young Afghan man named Khidr lands in Port Augusta. He has brought his six camels to make his fortune, and so becomes the transport for a scientific expedition. In the red centre the desert horizons seem familiar, but the cameleer will soon have his eyes and heart opened in the shimmering haze. More than a century later a young man named Chris comes of age in the Melbourne suburbs, having arrived from India when he was just a boy. After the trauma of his father’s mysterious death, Chris gravitates to St Kilda in a wide-eyed search for a bigger world. Drugs and sex and love enter his life, providing bliss and despair. Separated by time and space, Khidr and Chris undertake ecstatic, devastating journeys into the unknown. Their experiences weave indelibly into a singular, passionate story in Chris Raja’s gorgeous page-turning novel, Eye of the Needle.
