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Join us for the March Book of the Month selection!
A Long Way Home by Saroo Breirley
At only five years old, Saroo Brierley got lost on a train in India. Unable to read or write or recall the name of his hometown or even his own last name, he survived alone for weeks on the rough streets of Calcutta before ultimately being transferred to an agency and adopted by a couple in Australia.
Despite his gratitude, Brierley always wondered about his origins. Eventually, with the advent of Google Earth, he had the opportunity to look for the needle in a haystack he once called home, and pore over satellite images for landmarks he might recognize or mathematical equations that might further narrow down the labyrinthine map of India. One day, after years of searching, he miraculously found what he was looking for and set off to find his family.
A Long Way Home is a moving, poignant, 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.
Available on Amazon.com
Started this and am about halfway through. Interesting with all that Saroo has been through so far, but the writing feels a little choppy.
I’ve got 1 disk left on the audiobook.
I’m enjoying this book a lot. His journey is just extraordinary – crazy circumstances, extraordinary people and a mother so devoted!I agree though, it’s choppy. The latter half even more so. How many times did we go back to an explanation of his brother. At one point, he found his home town – then we were sitting in a living room with his mother? As an audiobook that was very jarring and so unnecessary. The middle part of the book had a much better flow.
oops, forgot to post my final review…so from Goodreads…
This story definitely has heart. Above everything and anything else.
It’s unimaginable, yet remarkable that a 5 year old could survive all that he did by luck or fate or a combination of the two and then come out on the other side as a well adjusted and positive adult.
It was the actual writing that I had some small issues with. Obviously writing is not the author’s career but he did a great job of explaining to the reader his emotions and where his mind was at. That being said, I think the story would have benefited if a collaborative writer had been involved. Someone who has more experience with story and sentence structure and pacing. Someone to explain that pages of talking about using google earth gets boring and repetitious. Someone who could have fixed the choppy sentences and jumping back and forth in time and place.
I did appreciate the various photos and maps that were included, as they gave me reference points (there are other books I wish had this).
So over all an enjoyable memoir that could have been better with some minor improvements.
Finished this up last week too.
I liked it overall. Malia is 5 and I simply cannot fathom how she would survive on her own. Granted, she didn’t have to spend her early years in survival mode, but STILL. Also, I’ve always wondered what an average person’s earliest memories are. Could I remember what happened to me at 5 years old, much less the details?
The jumping back and forth in time and the choppy flow — I can’t figure out why he would write it like that. As I mentioned before, I did the audiobook so maybe something was lost in the listening. I almost got the sense that he was trying to write it like he was processing the memories as they happened. He jumps to the reunion because that was the biggest highlight and then goes back to flesh out the details? I don’t know! But I feel like the emotional part of the book would have had a stronger punch if we weren’t jumping around so much.
Overall, a very good read. Like BK said, the book has a lot of heart to it. For me that outweighed the writing style. I love how good his adopted parents were. I love how much work Ms Sudth put into the ophanage home. His mother’s faith was beautiful. It displayed the depths of a mother’s heart and I just loved that.
My heart was sad about his brother. That’s a weight to carry to know that his frantic search for his baby brother may have lead him to be careless on the trains. I imagine you can’t help but carry that in the back of your mind.
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