New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of five novels, Sara Gruen, from western North Carolina, whose works have been translated into forty-three languages and have sold more than ten million copies worldwide. Water for Elephants was adapted into a major motion picture in 2011 starring Reese Witherspoon, Rob Pattison, and Christoph Waltz and then into a smash Broadway musical.

Jacob Jankowski, as a young man, was tossed by fate onto a rickety train.

There is preparation for a circus across the street from the nursing home where Jacob lives. He is not sure of his exact age but knows he is either ninety or ninety-three years old. Everyone in the nursing home (who are not senile or too frail anyway) is excited about the circus. Joseph, one of the men in the home, claims he once worked with a circus and that he used to carry water for the elephants. Jacob is infuriated by this claim and has an altercation with the man, the ladies around think that Jacob is overreacting and begin to fawn over Joseph.  From there begins a series of flashbacks by Jacob to when he was twenty-three. Jacob is days away from graduation from veterinary school when his parents die in an accident. He is also grief-stricken that he has a breakdown in the exam hall and walks out without writing his exams. After hours of wondering about, Jacob sees a moving train and one of them introduces himself as Camel and tells Jacob that the train he joined is a circus train belonging to Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth. It was the early part of the Great Depression, and for Jacob the circus was both his salvation and a living hell. A veterinary student just shy of a degree,  impressed by his resume as an Ivy League College trained veterinarian, Uncle AI, the owner of the circus,  put Joseph in charge for the circus menagerie. It was here that he met Marlena the beautiful equestrian star wife of an abusive equestrian August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also met Rosie, an untrainable elephant who was the great gray hope for this third-rate travelling show. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was ultimately their only hope for survival.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Algonquin Books, 368 pages