Buttrose recorded hours of interviews with both Saroo and his adoptive mother and completed a 70,000-word manuscript in a hotel room in Kolkata to meet a tough three-month deadline set by the publisher.
In an interview to ABC Radio Sydney, Larry Buttrose explained that "From the very first time I came in contact with the story, I knew it was a fantastic story. In this autobiographical book, Brierley covers three decades of his life, describing his ordeals and adventures as a lost five-year-old in rural India, his adoption by a middle-class Australian family, and his search for his Indian native family some 25 years later. It is reported that Brierley is currently writing a prequel to A Long Way Home, “the story of both my mothers – biological and adoptive – before I was in the picture.” Background The text was initially released in Australia on 24 June 2013 via Viking, then re-released internationally in 2014, and adapted into a major film in 2016. 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.A Long Way Home is a non-fiction book by Indian-Australian businessman Saroo Brierley written together 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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