MAPS.

Maps are key imagery in A Long Way Home. Saroo, the protagonist, finds his origins by searching for familiar physical landmarks on Google Earth. Imagine, falling asleep on the train at five years old and waking up to find you are not where you belong. Young Saroo was not yet familiar with the different stations, towns, and mapped landmarks. So years later when he decides to look for his birth family, he has little to go off of. This feeling, of staring at a map and not knowing where to begin, is where I chose to pull from for the cover of this book. The illustration is a portion of India’s railway system, left blank to inspire the same lack of place Saroo experienced for years as he searched for hints of home.