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Sad, horrifying, wondrous, life affirming, heartbreaking and heartwarming.

When Saroo’s father left his mother and their family for another woman, another family, they moved from the Hindu community / side of town to the Muslim side moving into a single room falling apart with a cowpat and mud floor and a small corner fireplace. What light there was came from candles. No electricity. Broken, unpaved streets outside throughout the poverty-stricken neighborhood.

Kamla, Saroo’s mother, worked 6 days a week, morning until nightfall, hard physically grueling work, sometimes gone for days at a time. Still, it wasn’t enough, so Guddu, the oldest at ten, went to work, washing dishes for 6 hours for half a rupee. I don’t know what that was worth then, but now one rupee is equivalent to 1.6 cents, so less than a penny for 6 hours of washing dishes. Still, they ended up begging for scraps from neighbors, anyone. Still, there were moments that Saroo would look back on later with fondness: playing peek-a-boo with Shekila, his baby sister. Playing with his brothers, Guddu and Kallu.

Guddu also tried extra jobs, selling items at the train station platform, but that created new problems with the law.

”I remember feeling hungry most of the time. There was no choice to the matter, hunger was simply a fact of life, like the searing heat and the constantly buzzing flies.��

Looking up to his older brother, five year-old Saroo decides to go with Guddu one night. It would be years before Saroo would return. With only a vague idea of the name of the village he is from, and many miles in between, it’s amazing he ever found his way back.

Five years old, I remember naps in school, a playground, an older brother and a brand new baby brother. I did have a long distance trip that year �� to Disneyland, my father, my older brother and me, but Calcutta is nothing like Disneyland, everyone spoke my language and money was not something I was concerned with. I was more concerned that my father didn’t know how to do pigtails.

All a far cry from a five year-old boy, in Calcutta, with no money, no family and no idea of where he is or how to find his way home.

He tries. Over and over.

And then, after a series of unfortunate circumstances followed by one fortunate one, Saroo ends up in an orphanage, and is “found�� by one woman working there - Saroj Sood. She seeks to find his home going on the only words he associates with his home. Ginestlay. Berampur. His town. The train station. Neither name is recognized by anyone, and after months pass, he is declared “lost,�� so that he is now available for adoption. A wonderful Australian couple are hoping he would like to come live with them, let them be his new family and live in Tasmania. Mrs. Sood asks Saroo if he thinks he would like to live with this family. This couple has lovingly put together a scrap book, photos of the plane to transport him to Australia, their home. His future in pictures.

Saroo owes much of his open heart to Sue and John Brierley, a couple who were heaven sent. They opened their hearts a second time, a few years later, to adopt a brother for Saroo, a second son for them, named Mantash.

Years go by, time passes and one day in 2004, Google purchases Brian McClendon’s company “Keyhole, Inc.��, and suddenly the world is at your fingertips. Google Earth. By this time, Saroo Brierley is a young man, and the internet as we know it is even younger, but there is a promise of something, just knowing it is out there and can be found. Consistent persistency with no results is emotionally draining. Exhausting. More time passes and the demand for instant everything brings faster speeds. Less time looking with better results. All this benefits Saroo in his search.

From the first days after he came to live with his Mom and Dad, his new parents were extremely supportive and helpful. Photographs, maps were drawn of his vague memories as a five year-old, which she kept. In case he ever wanted to find these answers. What an amazing gift, and what an amazing gift he gives them in return.

This book was originally titled “A Long Way Home: A Memoir,�� and was reissued as “Lion�� as a tie-in with the movie. Although he didn’t know this until his search was complete, Saroo’s given name was actually Sheru, which, in Hindu, means “Lion,�� �� and that became the name of the movie.

An inspirational, true story, a life most of us can’t imagine �� all this is the story of Saroo Brierley.