Sonia Nazario’s the nonfiction chronicle of a Honduran teenager’s dogged effort to reunite with his mother in the U.S., is the choice for the 2012 One Book, One Denver reading project.
The is based on the 2002 g wrote for the Los Angeles Times. The story begins in Honduras when Enrique is 5-years old. His impoverished mother, Lourdes, desperate to feed her children more than one meal a day, decides to find work in the U.S. so she can send money for her children’s food and education.
Multiple story lines follow Lourdes, Enrique, Enrique’s girlfriend, immigrant care workers and other immigrants and the perils they face. The include gangs, corrupt police and the very device they depend upon for — the trains with nicknames including “The Train of Death” and “The Train That Devours,” both references to the limbs and lives lost by would-be immigrants gambling on rooftop transportation.
“Half of the undocumented immigrants are women and children,” Nazario said Tuesday morning in a media conference, where she noted that Latinos compose 20 percent of Colorado’s population.
“My hope is that (‘Enrique’s Journey’) will help you your new neighbors,” she said.
Slight, with chin-length hair and rectangular black-framed glasses, Nazario, who lives in Los Angeles, made a point of mentioning her connection to Colorado — not as a former student of Colorado State University, as the site erroneously reported, but by marriage to a native of Arvada. (The committee that chooses the titles for One Book One Denver repeatedly has been for .)
The other two contenders for this year’s One Book, One Denver were historical and Timothy Egan’s saga , (Egan’s about the disastrous 1910 Western wildfires, was Summit County’s 2012 choice for its version of the Denver book club.) The winning book was chosen by from three finalists. “Enrique’s Journey” received approximately 60 percent of the nearly 1,000 public votes.
The Denver Public Library has stocked 1,000 copies of “Enrique’s Journey,” including 50 Spanish translations and downloadable free e-books. McDonald’s, the book club’s sponsor, is promoting “Enrique’s Journey” at its Denver restaurants, and has placed some copies with gift certificates at two downtown stores.
“Enrique’s Journey” joins Garth Stein’s Kathryn Stockett’s Leif Enger’s Sandra Cisneros’ John Nichols’ Nick Arvin’s , Dashiell Hammett’s and Harper Lee’s as top picks in the city book club.
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
