A Long Way Home

A Long Way Home

• Genre: Nonfiction; memoir/ autobiography
• Originally Published: 2013
• Reading Level/Interest: Grades 10-12; college/adult
• Structure/Length: 13 chapters, prologue, epilogue; approximately 288 pages; approximately 7 hours, 28 minutes on audio
• Central Concern: Saroo Brierley’s memoir A Long Way Home recounts his remarkable journey from being lost at a train station in India at the age of five, to being adopted by an Australian couple, to his search for and reunion with his biological family 25 years later. Using sparse memories and Google Earth, Brierley pieces together his past, navigating through the challenges of memory, identity, and belonging. The book explores resilience, the complexity of family ties, and the deep-seated need to know one’s roots.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Discussions of poverty and hardships in India; adoption; racism; emotional distress of a lost child; sexual exploitation; key figures who are unhoused; human trafficking; immigration; domestic abuse; abandonment and longing

Saroo Brierley, Author

• Bio: Born 1981 in Khandwa, India; lost and separated from his family at age five; adopted by an Australian couple; later found his biological family, a story represented in the major motion picture Lion

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide:

• Poverty and Survival
• Family, Identity, and Home
• Fate and Luck

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Teaching Guide, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the literary context of this nonfiction work with discussion of the memoir/autobiography form.
• Study paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Poverty and Survival; Family, Identity, and Home; and Fate and Luck.
• Plan, design, and construct visual media to convey Saroo’s use of imagery based on text details.
• Analyze and evaluate the plot and character details to draw conclusions in structured essay responses regarding adoption, technology, and other topics.