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.

"索尼婭•納紮裏奧，《洛杉磯時報》項目記者，有二十多年的報導經驗，專門采訪和撰寫與社會問題有關的報道。她寫的報道涉及到美國最大的一些問題：飢餓、藥品上癮和移民。

她得過無數項國傢級奬。2003年，題為“恩裏剋的旅行”的係列報道介紹瞭一個洪都拉斯男孩曆盡艱辛到美國萬裏尋母的故事，獲得瞭十幾項奬，包括普利策特稿寫作奬（Pulitzer Prize for feature writing）、喬治‧波爾剋國際報導奬（George Polk Award for International Reporting）、羅伯特‧肯尼迪新聞奬首奬（Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards），以及美國西裔記者協會頒發的吉列爾莫•馬丁內斯-馬剋斯綜閤傑齣奬（Guillermo Martinez-Marquez Award for Overall Excellence）。1998年，她曾因一個有關藥品成癮傢庭孩子的係列報道而成為普利策奬候選人。1994年，她曾因一個有關飢餓問題的係列報道而獲得喬治‧波爾剋地方報導奬（George Polk Award for Local Reporting）。"