Through his interviews and research Dr Buttrose worked out that Mr Brierley had been lost on the decommissioned train for 32 hours, and not 13 which had been previously reported in the media. His brother Kallu and sister Shekila both arrived as well and were equally delighted to see him again."Ī major part of the trip to India though was recreating the train journey that Mr Brierley may have taken as a five-year-old. "As we talked, she fondled Saroo's hand maternally. "She was there to greet us, a greying, slender but strong-looking woman with a keen eye and welcoming smile.
"We turned into a narrow alleyway, and the second house on our left belonged to Saroo's mother," Dr Buttrose wrote in the blogpost. He also accompanied him to the town of Khandwa where Mr Brierley had found his birth family including his mother, brother and sister some months before.ĭr Buttrose had found an interpreter in the town to help with the meeting, given Mr Brierley had forgotten much of his Hindi having lived in Australia for so long.
"Some memories were clearer, but others we needed to go over again and again, because his memories were hazy or something wasn't quite adding up." Retracing Saroo's journeyĭr Buttrose was with Mr Brierley when he retraced his steps for the first time on board the Kolkata Mail train and then through the chaotic streets of Kolkata. "Between interview sessions, Saroo would go home, search his memories, write down notes and bullet points, and then we would sit down together and go over his recollections again," he wrote. In a blogpost written this week, Dr Buttrose recalled those early stages of the book. Saroo Brierley works as a motivational speaker and lives in Hobart. He recorded hours of interviews, prompting Mr Brierley to return to his earliest memories to piece together his childhood. "It's as good a job as you could have done from that book I finished writing in that hotel room, translated to film." Piecing together faded memoriesĭr Buttrose, who lives in Sydney, had been to India several times and said he believed this was partly the reason Penguin Books chose him for the job.Īs a ghostwriter, he was told to write in "Saroo's voice" and so had to study his idioms and manner of speech over several meetings before the pair travelled to India in 2012. "The screenplay is excellent, the direction by Garth Davis is really superb, particularly how he deals with the actor playing young Saroo, who when he saw the film, had never seen a film before. "From the very first time I came in contact with the story, I knew it was a fantastic story," Dr Buttrose told ABC Radio Sydney. ‘An incredible story of how one boy survived and prevailed through extreme circumstances to change his fortunes.The story is brought to screens in the Hollywood film Lion. ‘A remarkable story … provides an informative and fascinating insight into how Third World families live with, and somehow survive, their poverty.’ ‘We urge you to step behind the headlines and have a read of this absorbing account … With clear recollections and good old-fashioned storytelling, Saroo … recalls the fear of being lost and the anguish of separation.’ ‘★★★★★ I literally could not put this book down … return journey will leave you weeping with joy and the strength of the human spirit.’ It celebrates the importance of never letting go of what drives the human spirit – hope. Then he set off on a journey to find his mother.Ī Long Way Home is a moving and inspirational true story of survival and triumph against incredible odds. And one day, after years of searching, he miraculously found what he was looking for. When he was a young man the advent of Google Earth led him to pore over satellite images of the country for landmarks he recognised. He spent hours staring at the map of India on his bedroom wall.
Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, he survived for weeks on the streets of Kolkata, before being taken into an orphanage and adopted by a couple in Australia.ĭespite being happy in his new family, Saroo always wondered about his origins. Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost home town half a world away, he made global headlines.