Perseverance by Patrick Dearen

It was 1932, the depths of the Great Depression, and thousands of desperate people rode the rails in search of jobs, homes, and hope. For some, the track was a road to nowhere, a dead end in a boxcar or under the wheels or in a sea of emptiness. Their fate seemed certain until Ish Watson grabbed the rungs of a passing freight train bound for a dying relative on the Texas Gulf Coast.