Publisher, HighBridge Audio (May 2006)

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“Gorgeous, brilliant, and superbly plotted. . . . I am hopelessly, unabashedly in love with this book.” —Joshilyn Jackson, author of the bestselling Gods in Alabama

“Utterly transporting.” —Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler

“A story so real, so authentic that it’s hard to separate fact from fiction and history from dream.” —Russ Harvey, Cody’s Books, Berkeley, CA

An atmospheric tale of life and love in a Depression-era traveling circus.

Nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. It’s the Depression Era and Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There he meets the freaks, grifters, and misfits that populate this world. Jacob introduces us to Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; to August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and the circus’s animal trainer); and to Rosie, a seemingly untrainable elephant.

Beautifully written, with a luminous sense of time and place, Water for Elephants tells of love in a world in which love’s a luxury few can afford.

About the Author: Sara Gruen is a transplanted Canadian who moved to the States in 1999 for a technical writing job. When she was laid off, she turned to writing fiction; Water for Elephants is her third novel. Gruen is an animal lover who lives with her husband, three children, five cats, two goats, a dog, and a horse in an environmentalist community north of Chicago.