Overview

Over 10 million copies sold worldwide! A Major Motion Picture starring Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, and Christoph Waltz #1 New York Times Bestseller * A Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, & USA Today Bestseller This is a great, glorious, big-hearted novel set in a travelling circus touring the backblocks of America during the Great Depression of the early 1930s. It's a story of love and hate, trains and circuses, dwarves and fat ladies, horses and elephants - or to be more specific, one elephant, Rosie, star of Benzini Bros Most Spectacular Show on Earth . When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, swindlers and misfits in a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that Jacob meets Marlena, the beautiful equestrienne who is married to August, a charismatic but violently unpredictable animal trainer. Jacob also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems unmanageable until he discovers an unusual way to reach her. Water for Elephants is a story that has it all - warmth, humour, poignancy and passion. It has an energy and spirit like the feeling under a big top when the show is about to begin. It is a novel that will win your heart. 'This colorful headlong tale of a Depression-era circus simply can't be beat.' -Stephen King

Full Product Details

9781741752953

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Reviews

Kate writes: This book sat on my reading pile for ages before I got around to reading it. While the upcoming release of the film has seemed to place itself within the romance genre, it has so much more going for it. The crazed, dramatic and bizarre world of the circus during the depression era is fascinating and completely engrossing. Gruen spent years researching and living circus life. Combined with her radar for the period and the mysteries of human nature, her characters lives are intimately revealed. I'd recommend this book to anyone! Gruen has also recently displayed her passion for writing and research with 'Ape House.

Author Information

Sara Gruen is an award-winning technical writer and a transplanted Canadian who moved to the States in 1999 for a technical writing job. Two years later she got laid off, and instead of looking for another job, she decided to take a gamble on writing fiction full-time. Fortunately, the gamble paid off. She made her fiction debut in 2004 with Riding Lessons , followed by Flying Changes . Water for Elephants is her third novel, and she's currently working on her fourth. Sara lives with her husband, three children, two dogs, four cats, two goats, and a horse in an environmentalist community in North Illinois. Her dream is to spend her life facedown in the ocean, coming up just long enough to eat a piece of fish, write a chapter, and go back in the water.

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