Enrique's Journey

By: Sonia Nazario

Narrated by: Catherine Byers

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

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.

©2006 Sonia Nazario (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The breadth and depth of Nazario's research into this phenomenon is astounding, and she has crafted her findings into a story that is at once moving and polemical." ( Publishers Weekly)

Important and intriguing read.

Loved it. Listened in the car daily and was impressed with each new chapter. A must read for educators.

Enlightening

The narrator DESTROYED the Spanish. I’m certain there must have been someone else who could have read this, but it was an interesting listen nonetheless.

Great and insightful story

Loved the story, but narration was so, so would have like to had a person that could pronounce the Spanish words better.

Good story but difficult to finish

I struggled to finish because of the narrator's accent. Should have someone who could properly pronounce spanish words

Required reading turned into unstoppable tears

I was required to read this book for school and I always dread those assignments because I love to read on my time. But once I dove into this story there was no pulling me out. It was addicting, heartbreaking, raw, and all around heart warming. Very good, props to my college for assigning it ; )

Good read

Couldn't stop listening. Narrator should have been a spanish speaking person. Real eye opener as to the plight of the illegal immigrant.

A Different Perspective

This book offers wonderful perspective into the complicated world of immigration and what it entails.

This is a MUST READ

For anyone who has ever thought about the topic of immigration. An unbelievable true story.

Great story

The reader is good, but her Spanish accent is terrible. Should have used a native speaker or at least a person who is fluent. The reader clearly has no familiarity with the language. The few words and phrases she pronounces are cringeworthy.

Excellent reporting; reader butchers Spanish

Nazario's reporting is excellent. She's taken a heart wrenching situation and woven in humanity to make it bearable.

Byers is a good reader for English but her Spanish takes away from her performance.