Books that Hook: A Long Way Home: A Boy’s Incredible Journey from India to Australia and Back Again

Books that Hook

By Kalie Chamberlain

Our senior book reviews are written with the understanding that mature, sensible, premium-aged people may not want the bother of searching for well-written, sleaze-free reading materials—that’s why we’ve done the searching for you. We hope you enjoy this month’s pick.

This Month’s Nonfiction Selection: A Long Way Home: A Boy’s Incredible Journey from India to Australia and Back Again

Author: Saroo Brierley

Publisher: Random House

Length: 273 pages

Sometimes, the true stories are the most unbelievable. A Long Way Home, the internationally bestselling memoir by Australian Saroo Brierley, is just such a story.

Born in poverty in a village in East Bengal, India, Saroo lived with his mother and three siblings in a dwelling that hardly qualified as a hut. His mother, Kamla, supported the family by carrying heavy rocks at construction sites. 

Saroo’s older brothers supplemented the family income by earning what they could and scavenging the rest. One night, then five-year-old Saroo begged his older brother to let him come along. Guddu agreed, and together, the brothers boarded a railcar to a neighboring town where jobs were easier to come by. Once they reached their destination, they became separated. Saroo climbed back aboard a train in search of his brother, only to discover he was locked in, hurtling in an unknown direction to an unknown destination. When the train finally halted, he found himself lost and alone in one of the largest and most dangerous cities in the world: Calcutta.

Saroo’s survival instincts were tested to the limit during the weeks he lived on the streets of Calcutta faced with danger, starvation, and despair. When rescued from a life of homelessness and almost certain death, local authorities tried to contact his family, but Saroo did not know his family’s last name, and the towns he remembered appeared on no map.

A few months later, Saroo was adopted by parents living in Tasmania, a small island off the coast of Australia, and he became Saroo Brierley. When he was a grown man, with the advent of Google Earth he set off an a seemingly impossible quest to find his home and the family of his birth.

While the topics are difficult, the book is not. The memoir reads easily, like opening a window into the author’s heart. Readers across the globe agreed, and in 2016, a film version, called Lion, was released. It was an overwhelming success, the rare exception when the movie is just as good as the book. The story of Saroo’s long journey home, whether you read it or watch it, will open your eyes and your heart. 

You can borrow A Long Way Home from your local library. Purchase it from a local bookseller or at www.amazon.com. Also available in e-book and audio book format.