By
Saroo Brierley
Berkley,
2015. 273 pgs. Biography
Saroo
Brierley spent his first five years living in rural India with a loving but
very poor mother and his three siblings. Barely finding enough to eat from day
to day, his brothers expand their search for work and food by catching trains
to nearby villages. One night Saroo goes with his brother to another town and
falls asleep on a bench waiting for his brother to return. Waking up in a panic and still drowsy Saroo
enters a train car looking for his brother but then the train leaves the
station. Many hours later the train
reaches Calcutta. Saroo is so young he scarcely knows his name, let alone where
he is from but he manages to survive from day to day.
If
you irretrievably lose your family what would be best thing that could
happen to you? Given that there are
millions of homeless, abandoned, orphaned children in India Saroo is very
fortunate to be picked up off the street, sent to an orphanage, and then
adopted by a family in Australia. Still the memory of his birth family and his
longing for them is always with him until one day he vows to find them. Saroo’s story is a glimpse into a faraway
world – at once triumphant and heartbreaking.
This book was made into the film “Lion,” released in 2016. It is a quick
and rewarding read.
SH
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