In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States.

When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed her children, leaves Honduras to work in the United States. The move allows her to send money back home to Enrique so he can eat better and go to school past the third grade.

Lourdes promises Enrique she will return quickly. But she struggles in America. Years pass. He begs for his mother to come back. Without her, he becomes lonely and troubled. When she calls, Lourdes tells him to be patient. Enrique despairs of ever seeing her again. After eleven years apart, he decides he will go find her.

Enrique sets off alone from Tegucigalpa, with little more than a slip of paper bearing his mother’s North Carolina telephone number. Without money, he will make the dangerous and illegal trek up the length of Mexico the only way he can–clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains.

With gritty determination and a deep longing to be by his mother’s side, Enrique travels through hostile, unknown worlds. Each step of the way through Mexico, he and other migrants, many of them children, are hunted like animals. Gangsters control the tops of the trains. Bandits rob and kill migrants up and down the tracks. Corrupt cops all along the route are out to fleece and deport them. To evade Mexican police and immigration authorities, they must jump onto and off the moving boxcars they call El Tren de la Muerte–The Train of Death. Enrique pushes forward using his wit, courage, and hope–and the kindness of strangers. It is an epic journey, one thousands of immigrant children make each year to find their mothers in the United States.

Based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series that won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for feature writing and another for feature photography, Enrique’s Journey is the timeless story of families torn apart, the yearning to be together again, and a boy who will risk his life to find the mother he loves.

From the Hardcover edition.

"索尼娅•纳扎里奥，《洛杉矶时报》项目记者，有二十多年的报导经验，专门采访和撰写与社会问题有关的报道。她写的报道涉及到美国最大的一些问题：饥饿、药品上瘾和移民。

她得过无数项国家级奖。2003年，题为“恩里克的旅行”的系列报道介绍了一个洪都拉斯男孩历尽艰辛到美国万里寻母的故事，获得了十几项奖，包括普利策特稿写作奖（Pulitzer Prize for feature writing）、乔治‧波尔克国际报导奖（George Polk Award for International Reporting）、罗伯特‧肯尼迪新闻奖首奖（Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards），以及美国西裔记者协会颁发的吉列尔莫•马丁内斯-马克斯综合杰出奖（Guillermo Martinez-Marquez Award for Overall Excellence）。1998年，她曾因一个有关药品成瘾家庭孩子的系列报道而成为普利策奖候选人。1994年，她曾因一个有关饥饿问题的系列报道而获得乔治‧波尔克地方报导奖（George Polk Award for Local Reporting）。"