I've just read 'A Long Way Home' by Saroo Brierley. The movie 'Lion' (2016) was based on this true story.
Here's the synopsis:
When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost home town half a world away, he made global headlines.
Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. 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.
Despite being happy in his new family, Saroo always wondered about his origins. He spent hours staring at the map of India on his bedroom wall. 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. And one day, after years of searching, he miraculously found what he was looking for.
Then he set off on a journey to find his mother.
It's such an amazing book! Reading the words from the little boy (now a man) himself who became lost as a FIVE-YEAR OLD, survived for two/three weeks alone - defying kidnapping, death, or worse - and then somehow managed to luck out and become adopted by a couple in Australia, is truly harrowing. When I was reading I could barely believe that I was reading the words of a person who had survived all this. His seemingly inconsequential decision to accompany his older brother Guddu to the train station one night to beg for money ended up changing his life...he fell asleep in the station, boarded a train looking for his brother, and was lost. He spent 25 years looking for his home in India.
The movie was brilliant and so is the book, however unlike most books that become movies, I'd recommend you watch the movie before you read the book, which is luckily what I did. I say this because if you read the book, you can't really 'feel' the ending as much as you can in the movie. The ending of the movie is much more emotional if you go into it not knowing what will happen! I took one day to read this book because it was just that good!
I've also recently read a book called 'If He Had Been With Me' by Laura Nowlin. Here's the synopsis:
I wasn't with Finn on that August night. But I should've been. It was raining, of course. And he and Sylvie were arguing as he drove down the slick road. No one ever says what they were arguing about. Other people think it's not important. They do not know there is another story. The story that lurks between the facts. What they do not know—the cause of the argument—is crucial.
So let me tell you...
This one...was a SOUL CRUSHER. How can a book be this good? So many emotions! Laura Nowlin is such a great writer, and this was pretty evident since I couldn't tear my eyes away from the book until it was done (with the exception of sleep of course). I took two days to read it because I literally could not stop. It's a very realistic view of teen life, particularly of the main character, Autumn. I wish there was a part 2... Seriously, you should see the reviews on Goodreads.com. Everyone over there is sobbing.
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Topic: The Good Books Thread/ATARnotes Book Club! (Read 172974 times)