A Long Way Home, Week 3

Welcome to Week 3 of the Online Book Club discussion of A Long Way Home.

How are you liking the story? Do you enjoy Brierley's writing style? Are you excited to get to the end of the book, so you can see how the story comes together? 

At the beginning of this section, Saroo explains how his parents chose to adopt. I thought it was really interesting that his mother had had a vision of a child with brown skin standing by her side. What did you think of his adoptive parents? Did you think they sounded like interesting people? They sure provided some cool experiences for Saroo once he made it to Australia. I think the thing I was most shocked about in this chapter was the fact that Brierley arrived in Australia only 3 months after his parents were approved for a child. I have never heard of an adoption moving that quickly!

I thought it was interesting that Saroo seemed a bit rudderless for a while. He definitely seemed to be struggling to figure out who and what he wanted to be. It was during this time tha he finds out about Google Earth and decides that it could help him figure out his past. I can't even imagine how much time and effort it took to look so diligently. I think I would be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task. He didn't say exactly how long it took him to get results, but I felt like it was years. Could you believe that a random search was the one that brought him to his hometown? He was so lucky to just stumble on that line. When he gets to the train station, he realizes that the place he traveled to was called "Burhanpur," and after consulting the Facebook group, he finds that his town was called "Ganesh Talai," not "Ginestlay." Can you believe no one was ever able to help him since he was so close with the names? I guess that shows just how vast India is and how small his town was. 

If you'd like to read more about Saroo's process of searching using Google Earth, check out this blog post. Make sure to watch the video on the page! It shows real pictures and is narrated by Saroo. 

At the end of this section, Saroo decides to head to India. Were you surprised that he wanted to go alone? I think I would need someone to come with me and help me not get too emotional. He was very brave to go alone. 

Before you go, check out this interview with Dev Patel, the star of the movie version.  Let me know what you think of the interview in the comments section!

Thanks for reading with us this week! Make sure to leave a comment, so I know how you enjoyed this section. Join us again next week as we discuss the end of the book!