![]() ![]() The book begins with a teaser prologue which gives it away – near the empty shell of his old home, he finds somebody who says he’ll take Saroo to his mother. Reading the blurb, it dealt with international adoption which is a topic of interest to me. There was a brown person on the cover, so I bought it knowing nothing about the book. This was, once again, a fully random Target pick. But is any of his family still there? Lion (previously A Long Way Home) by Saroo Brierley. Twenty-five years after he got lost, he came home again. Some didn’t believe him, others tried to take advantage of him, but none were able to find his family based on his five-year old recollections.Īs an adult with the help of Google Earth, he began an obsessive search to find his home town. Along the way, he told many people his story. Six emotional months later, he was adopted into an Australian family, the Brierleys. NOTE: Previously published under the title A Long Way Home.īorn into an impoverished but loving family in rural India, Saroo accompanied his brother to a nearby train station and got lost, ending up asleep on a train which took him to Calcutta. New American Library imprint, Penguin Random House, 2013. And I looked at the second one and I thought, "There's something about you" - and it took me a few seconds but I decrypted what she used to looked like.Lion by Saroo Brierley with Larry Buttrose. And by the time the fourth person had come, they said, "Just stay here for a sec," and within 10 minutes they came back around and they said, "Now I'm going to take you to your mother."Īnd I couldn't believe it, because when I went around the corner, which was only 10, 15 meters around the corner, there three ladies standing in front of an entrance to a house. That went on quite a few times with other people that kept wanting to know this person that's a foreigner that's coming to a town that's never seen a foreigner. Another person comes in and I sort of spill my mantra to them as well. And I said to her, my name is Saroo and these are my family members' names. But lucky for me this lady came out of a doorway holding a baby, and she said, "Can I help you?". Putnam's SonsĪnd I just thought the worst, I thought perhaps everyone's gone, my whole family's died, they've passed away. Saroo Brierley was born in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India, and currently lives in Hobart, Tasmania. He remembered landmarks, but since he didn't know his town's name, finding a small neighborhood in a vast country proved to be impossible. There, he was adopted by an Australian family and flown to Tasmania.Īs he recounts in his new book, A Long Way Home, Brierley couldn't help but wonder about his hometown back in India. He lived on the streets, then in a juvenile home and, finally, in an orphanage. He was more than a thousand miles from his home, in a city where he did not speak the language. That train took him across the country to Kolkata (then called Calcutta), where he spent five harrowing months. "It was just an impulse decision," Brierley says, "that, in fact, changed my destiny for life." Finding himself alone, the 4-year-old decided his brother might be on the train he saw in front of him - so he hopped on. ![]() He took a nap in the station, and when he woke up, he couldn't see his brother. One day, Brierley tagged along to the next city down the rail line. Brierley's older brothers would hop trains to nearby towns to search for scraps to eat. His mother was raising four children on her own, and they were constantly hungry. At 4 years old, he couldn't read: He didn't even know the name of his hometown. More than 25 years ago, Saroo Brierley was one of many poor children in rural India. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title A Long Way Home Author Saroo Brierley ![]()
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