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)

Love this story

I unexpectedly loved this book. I do not like the music. The music tended to be too loud and drowned out parts of the story.

Great Performance

This was a well written story, rich and page turning, although present tense is not my preference. I didn't care for the violence and the convenient, even cliched deaths of certain characters.

Loved reading the book

The young version of Jacob was so far off from how I pictured him in my minds eye When reading the book, that it was hard to listen to. They could’ve use someone with a stronger voice

How not to age gracefully

Buy this book. There, the real question is answered but you want details? Fine, take a listen to a story that gives depth and color to anyone's life who starts young and ends up wondering how they got old and didnt notice. Listen to a story about running away to the circus and how a young man got a lifetime of lessons in the real world over some short months. The descriptions of the life in a circus and the characters who lived it are impressive and a joy to listen to. By the end of the story, you will be completely enthralled by the central character and his life story and it will, not might, it WILL cause you to rethink how you treat grand dad in you own life. You can easily lose yourself in the story as it flows around the plot. The prose is well written and the use of two narrators provides an excellent verbal presentation of a young man and his much older self. This book is one of the best narrated stories I have heard in the past three years of using Audible and really makes the listening a real joy.

Great Story & Great Characters

Several of my friends recommended this book to me over the past several years. I finally purchased it when it was on sale and it was fantastic. I loved the story, the setting and the point of view of both the older and younger hero. I enjoyed every minute and would highly recommend it!

A Throughly Enjoyable Listen

I absolutely recommend this book.
The story, the narrative, the grand sweep of a long bygone era (not so unlike ours today) left me wanting for more. At the end, I laughed, and I cried, and started a second "listen".
My only peeve, was that their should have been a third narrator for the female characters of the story (but then that might have brought the narration up towards the "Radio Staging" level of audio-drama's.

Great narration

This is an interesting story with good plot and character development. What made it wonderful was the narration - two actors/narrators played (and read) the roles of young and old Jacob. They were outstanding and made the story come alive.

Enjoyable love story, but...

Nice love story. Someone implied it had similarities to "The Time Traveler's Wife," which is why I downloaded it, but I couldn't find the similarity. Not exactly a page-turner for me.

Reviewers Are Right!

I bought this book, because of the reviews, and I wasn't disappointed! I really can't add much other then to say that it'll make you laugh, cry and reward you with an outstanding ending!!

A TRUE WINNER!!

I really didn't have much interest in reading this book as the summary didn't spark any interest from me - it just didn't seem like the type of book that I would read. However, I decided that since it had received such great reviews, that if I was ever going to read this book, listening to it might be the way to go. I am so glad that I decided to listen to the Audible recording. The story in and of itself is absolutely wonderful, but listening to the narrators brought this story to life. BEST NARRATED BOOK I'VE EVER LISTENED TO!!! Couldn't wait to continue the story each day and when it was over, I immediately started it over again. It is that good!