#7 in Spy & espionage
Eye of the Needle
- 339
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
- Film 1981
- On screen
- NYT bestseller · 1 week on the list, peaked at #9
- Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel
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About the book
Eye of the Needle is a spy thriller novel written by Welsh author Ken Follett. It was originally published in 1978 by the Penguin Group under the title Storm Island. This novel was Follett's first successful, best-selling effort as a novelist, and it earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. The revised title is an allusion to the "eye of a needle" aphorism.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- FilmEye of the NeedleIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 236 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 62% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Spy & espionage average of 7.6. That is how 7.8 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.8 | 25 | 11% |
| Hardcover | 8.0 | 206 | 87% |
| Google Books | 9.0 | 5 | 2% |
Frequently asked
How long is Eye of the Needle?
It has 339 pages — shorter than 89% of the ranked books in Spy & espionage.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Spy & espionage — with scores between 7.5 and 8.0, closest to this book.
