Water for Elephants

By: Sara Gruen

Narrated by: David LeDoux, John Randolph Jones

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

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' 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.

©2006 Sara Gruen (P)2006 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

• Book Sense Book of the Year Award, Adult Fiction, 2007
• Audie Award Finalist, Fiction, Unabridged, 2007

" Water for Elephants resembles stealth hits like The Giant's House, by Elizabeth McCracken, or The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, books that combine outrageously whimsical premises with crowd-pleasing romanticism. . . . With a showman's expert timing, [Gruen] saves a terrific revelation for the final pages, transforming a glimpse of Americana into an enchanting escapist fairy tale.” ( New York Times Book Review)

"Just like a circus, the magic of the story and the writing convince you to suspend your disbelief." ( Booklist)

"Gruen skillfully humanizes the midgets, drunks, rubes, and freaks who populate her book." ( Publishers Weekly)

Great story with 2 great narrators!

I had so much fun listening to this story. I really enjoyed how well each character was developed, even the small ones. Even before seeing the movie, I could easily picture all of the events unfold in my head. The two different narrators were great in expressing the emotions of the characters they portrayed. I highly recommend this book to any audiobook listener

Wonderfully touching story

Beautifully narrated. Compelling story. So enjoyable to listen to. As is usually the case with books that have been turned into films, the book is far better than the movie!

Amazing Book

Loved listening from start to finish. The story was great and the narration did justice to every part of the story. I would definitely recommend it.

Best audiobook

I have read this book, but listening to it was amazing. The two narrators made it my favorite audiobook to date!

Happy I Finally Listened, But....

I was a little bored? It was entertaining enough but I just wasn't enthralled with the story as some of the other reviewers. Maybe I'm being too harsh.

The narration is flawless, though. Wow.

Definitely recommend

What did you like best about this story?

Story definitely keeps you interested and wanting to come back. The portrayal of a depression-era circus is probably the most interesting part of the entire book, while the portrayal of life in a modern day retirement home was very honest. The passion between the two main characters is sudden and hard to believe, but the rest of the story and other characters make up for it.

Have you listened to any of David LeDoux and John Randolph Jones ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I haven't. The man who played "90 or 93 year-old" Jacob was excellent!!!! The man who played Jacob at 23 did well, but there were times when he spoke too dramatically - the way he would emphasize words when simply describing how things were arranged in a room were strange to me, but over all he did well and I would still recommend this book.

I enjoyed the story but kind of had a sad ending

the narrator did great the story was great and I enjoyed how it went back and forth with flashbacks to present day. you got to see his whole life passed before him and wonder what happened in between but it was really good

Water for Elephants

This book is now on my list of favourites in my lifetime. It caught me right from the start and intrigued me until the end of the book. The review of Jacob’s memories of his past life in the depression mixed with his review of life now in a retirement home was both enlightening and humorous. I work in a long term care facility and found hearing the story from Jacob’s perspective was humbling and sent me through a whole raft of emotions. This story is well written, and the narrators did a fantastic job of bringing the story to life.

no tv/phone needed, great fun! reader awesome!

could have done without the animal deaths, but I hung in there for a fascinating, exciting, even romantic story.

Outstanding Audiobook

Water for Elephants is one of the most captivating stories to which I've ever listened! It's one of those books that is especially excellent in the audio format -- in fact, I would image it is BETTER, as it is read by an old man and a young man, something that would have been lost in reading a book. The story moves quickly and enthralls the listener from start to finish. High, high recommendation!