High Hopes for Gruen's Water for Elephants

Posted on June 1, 2006

USA Today reports that booksellers are really getting behind Sara Gruen's novel Water for Elephants (Algonquin).

"The buzz has spread like wildfire," says Algonquin's Michael Taeckens, who sent out "tons of galleys" to independents.
Gruen has published two other novels: paperback originals Riding Lessons (2004; about an accident that derails a promising horse rider) and Flying Changes (2005; a sequel).
Water for Elephants, her first hardcover, takes place during the early 1930s. The main character is Jacob Jankowski, a college dropout who winds up working as a circus veterinarian. The novel flashes between a nursing home where Jankowski, 93, lives and his circus days.
There's love, danger, cruelty (to people and animals), raunchiness, lawlessness, even murder.

The book also features an exceptional elephant named Rosie who is part of a traveling circus. USA Today says the book is the No. 1 Book Sense Pick for June. It has also been picked for Border's Original Voices program. Publisher Algonquin has boosted the print run from 15,000 to 70,000 books and expanded author Sara Gruen's book tour. Sara Gruen says she wrote half of the novel in this walk-in closet. Gruen also donates a portion of the royalties from her books to animal charities including elephant sanctuaries.