AustLit

''My most desperate wish while Saroo was growing up was to send through the heavens a message—"Your boy is fine, I'm looking after him. He's beautiful." That was my big wish.'

'Saroo Brierley's journey home to a small village in India by scrolling through countless satellite images on Google Earth became an internationally bestselling book and inspired the major motion picture LION. But the untold story of how his adoptive mother, Sue, came into his life half a world away in Tasmania is every bit as riveting and unlikely. For Sue herself had a traumatic childhood. She was the daughter of European refugees, and her father was a violent alcoholic whose business gambles left her family destitute.

'When Sue married she was determined to break the cycle of despair. She chose not to have biological children and to adopt a child in need. Sue and her husband, John, filled their home with love and compassion, and opened their hearts to two very special little boys, Saroo and Mantosh.

'Twenty-five years later, the discovery that Saroo's mother was actually still alive in a remote town in India turned his world upside down — as it did for Sue. The story of how Sue met Kamla and united over their shared love for Saroo is both moving and inspiring.

'In this uplifting and deeply personal book Sue explores what it means to be a mother, how families are formed in many ways, and how love and perseverance can, ultimately, bring us all together.' (Publication summary)