Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen

As a young man, Jacob Jankowski was tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the great Depression, and for Jacob, now ninety, the circus world he remembers was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree, he was put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It was there that he met Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. And he met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate traveling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and, ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

(From Publisher)

Sara Gruen is the author of the bestseller Riding Lessons and Flying Changes. She lives north of Chicago with her husband, her three children, four cats, two goats, two dogs, and a horse.

There is a special atmosphere of circus that Gruen so carefully depicted.

The Novel is an exquisite metaphor of human life as God’s Circus in its tragic-comical panoramic picture of external and internal existence of man. The novel’s message has much in common with Albert Schweitzer’s philosophy of “respect for life”, and this message is revealed not outright, but through the delicate reconstruction of interplay of characters with each other, with their surroundings and with mute God’s creatures in their care. Brilliant if outwardly unassuming style, elegant, economic and expressive.

Ms Gruen provides an interesting and unforgettable insight into the forgotten world of the travelling circus and their performers.