''My most desperate wish while Saroo was growing up was to send through the heavens a message—"Your boy is fine, I'm looking after him. He's beautiful." That was my big wish.'
'Saroo Brierley's journey home to a small village in India by scrolling through countless satellite images on Google Earth became an internationally bestselling book and inspired the major motion picture LION. But the untold story of how his adoptive mother, Sue, came into his life half a world away in Tasmania is every bit as riveting and unlikely. For Sue herself had a traumatic childhood. She was the daughter of European refugees, and her father was a violent alcoholic whose business gambles left her family destitute.
'When Sue married she was determined to break the cycle of despair. She chose not to have biological children and to adopt a child in need. Sue and her husband, John, filled their home with love and compassion, and opened their hearts to two very special little boys, Saroo and Mantosh.
'Twenty-five years later, the discovery that Saroo's mother was actually still alive in a remote town in India turned his world upside down — as it did for Sue. The story of how Sue met Kamla and united over their shared love for Saroo is both moving and inspiring.
'In this uplifting and deeply personal book Sue explores what it means to be a mother, how families are formed in many ways, and how love and perseverance can, ultimately, bring us all together.' (Publication summary)
A Long Way Home
Lion : A Long Way Home
Melbourne
:
Viking
,
2013
6153454
2013
single work
autobiography
'When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost home town half a world away, he made global headlines.
'Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, he survived for weeks on the streets of Kolkata, before being taken into an orphanage and adopted by a couple in Australia.
'Despite being happy in his new family, Saroo always wondered about his origins. He spent hours staring at the map of India on his bedroom wall. When he was a young man the advent of Google Earth led him to pore over satellite images of the country for landmarks he recognised. And one day, after years of searching, he miraculously found what he was looking for.
'Then he set off on a journey to find his mother.
'A Long Way Home is a moving and inspirational true story of survival and triumph against incredible odds. It celebrates the importance of never letting go of what drives the human spirit – hope.' (Publisher's blurb)
'The vision was of a brown-skinned child standing by her side. She sensed it so keenly that she could even feel the child’s warmth. It was so striking she wondered about her sanity … but as time went by, she became more comfortable with her vision, accepted it as something precious, a visitation of some sort that only she knew about.’' (Introduction)
'The vision was of a brown-skinned child standing by her side. She sensed it so keenly that she could even feel the child’s warmth. It was so striking she wondered about her sanity … but as time went by, she became more comfortable with her vision, accepted it as something precious, a visitation of some sort that only she knew about.’' (Introduction)
