Water for Elephants

Praise for WATER FOR ELEPHANTS

“Lively with historical detail and unexpected turns. . . .
Water for Elephants
is a rich surprise, a delightful gem springing from a fascinating footnote to history that absolutely deserved to be mined.”

—
The Denver Post

“So compelling, so detailed and vivid, that I couldn’t bear to be torn away from it for a single minute.”

—
Chicago Tribune

“Gruen unearths a lost world with her rich and surprising portrayal of life in a traveling circus in the ’30s. An emotional tale that will please history buffs—and others.”

—
People

“[An] arresting new novel. . . . 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. . . .
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.”

—
The New York Times Book Review

“Sara Gruen has written a rare book that is a great story, well written and bearing one of the happiest endings you will ever read.”

—Rona Brinlee, NPR’s
Morning Edition

“[This] sprightly tale has a ringmaster’s crowd-pleasing pace.”

—
Entertainment Weekly

“Gritty, sensual and charged with dark secrets involving love, murder and a majestic, mute heroine (Rosie the Elephant).”

—
Parade

“You’ll get lost in the tatty glamour of Gruen’s meticulously researched world, from spangled equestrian pageantry and the sleazy side show to an ill-fated night at a Chicago speak-easy.”

—
The Washington Post

“[A] riveting story. . . . Gruen is an old-fashioned storyteller, who, in keeping with John Updike’s blueprint for fiction, ‘can keep an organized mass of images and characters.’”

—
The Toronto Globe and Mail

“Sara Gruen offers love, drama and thrills under the big top. Only the most hardened of audience members will be able to resist.”

—
The Tampa Tribune

“A fascinating setting and a richly anecdotal story that is enjoyable right up to the final, inevitable revelation.”

—
The Onion

“Gruen sets her story among the freaks and geeks and captive animals of a traveling circus during the Great Depression. It’s a good move. . . . She ratchets up the tension bit by tiny bit, luring us into the weird world of the roustabout and the candy butcher, the fat lady and the cooch coach.”

—Veronique De Turenne, NPR’s
Day to Day

“Gruen performs a double trick in her novel: She gives an engrossing picture of circus life as well as a taste of what it’s like to grow old.”

—
Minneapolis Star Tribune

“A beautiful book.”

—John Searles, CBS’s
The Early Show

“A piercing look at Depression-era circus life, where violence, laughter managed to coexist. . . . Sara Gruen’s
Water for Elephants
captures the sounds, smells and sights of the circus. . . . Delicious.”

—
The Charlotte Observer

“Novelist Sara Gruen sweeps her readers off their feet in the opening pages of
Water For Elephants
—and doesn’t let go until she deposits them at the end of her fantastic tale of passion, madness and fancy. . . . The last notes of
Water for Elephants
linger long after the book ends. The alternating glamour and squalor of the circus world Gruen expertly conjures may truly be one of the greatest shows.”

—
The Grand Rapids Press

“You need this elephant in your life. . . .
Water for Elephants
is a keeper.”

—
Baton Rouge Journal

“Jacob’s search for lost time is vivid and atmospheric, his story told with passion and an eye for the curious and entertaining detail.”

—
Bookmarks
magazine

“A love letter to a colorful but terrifying past and an exciting story from cover to cover. . . . This is sheer fun.”

—
Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Endlessly surprising and superior in its attention to detail, the novel is the unknown adventure saga we can’t believe we’ve never heard.”

—
The Kansas City Star

“Vivid, riveting, and surprisingly poignant.”

—
Pages

“A rich, rolling epic of a story. It’s like those circus posters of days gone by: ‘You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you won’t believe your eyes. Step forward ladies and gentlemen.’ And indeed you should.”

—
Independent Weekly

“Water for Elephants
vividly and concisely brings this lost world to life.”

—
Columbus Dispatch

“Old-fashioned and endearing, this is an enjoyable, fast-paced story.”

—
Library Journal

“Lovely and mesmerizing.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“[A] page-turner. . . . Gruen skillfully humanizes midgets, drunks, rubes and freaks who populate her book.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Gorgeous, brilliant, and superbly plotted,
Water for Elephants
swept me into the world of the circus during the Depression, and it did not let me go until the very end. I don’t think it has let me go, even now. Sara Gruen has a voice to rival John Irving’s, and I am hopelessly, unabashedly in love with this book. Read it.”

—Joshilyn Jackson, author of
Gods in Alabama

“So much more than a tale about a circus,
Water for Elephants
is a compelling journey not only under the big top, but into the protagonist’s heart. Sara Gruen uses her talent as a writer to bring that world alive for the reader: I could smell it, taste it, feel every word of it. This is a fiction reader’s dream come true.”

—Jeanne Ray, author of
Julie and Romeo Get Lucky

“The circus, the Great Depression, a complex elephant, equally complex love, the mists and twists of memory articulated in the utterly winning voice of a very old man who’s seen it all: these are the irresistible elements of
Water for Elephants
. Sara Gruen has written an utterly transporting novel richly full of the stuff of life.”

—Robert Olen Butler, author of
From Where You Dream

“An entirely original, captivating story of finding love in a down-at-the-heels traveling circus in the Great Depression. Sara Gruen writes with great tenderness and breathtaking drama, which makes the novel impossible to put down.”

—Stephanie Cowell, author of
Marrying Mozart

“In this thrilling, romantic story set in a traveling circus in the 1930s, Sara Gruen has a big top’s worth of vivid characters and an exhilarating narrative that kept me up all night. From the perseverance of a terrier named Queenie to the charm of Rosie the elephant, this masterpiece of storytelling is a book about what animals can teach people about love.”

—Susan Cheever, author of
My Name Is Bill

W
ATER FOR
E
LEPHANTS

A NOVEL

SARA GRUEN

Published by
ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of
WORKMAN PUBLISHING
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014

© 2006 by Sara Gruen. All rights reserved.
First paperback edition, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, April 2007.
Originally published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 2006.
Printed in the United States of America.
Design by Jacky Woolsey.

For permission to reprint photographs, grateful acknowledgment is made to the following: pages xii, 48, 90, 112, 142, 160, 220, 260, 290, and 312 courtesy of the Collection of the Ringling Circus Museum, Sarasota, Florida; pages 30, 178, and 196 courtesy of the Pfening Archives, Columbus, Ohio; page 70 courtesy of Ken Harck Archives; pages 128 and 238 courtesy of Timothy Tegge, Tegge Circus Archives, Baraboo, Wisconsin; page 14 courtesy of Barbara Fox McKellar.

This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. No reference to any real person is intended or should be inferred.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gruen, Sara.

Water for elephants : a novel / by Sara Gruen.—1st ed.

    p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-499-8 (HC)

1. Circus—Fiction. 2. Depressions—Fiction. 3. Circus performers—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3607.R696W38 2006

813'.6—dc22                                                               2005052700

ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-560-5 (PB)

1  0  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
First Paperback Edition

F
OR
B
OB
,
STILL MY SECRET WEAPON

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to the following people for their contributions to this book:

To the fantabulous team at Algonquin, including Chuck Adams, Michael Taeckens, Aimee Rodriguez, Katherine Ward, Elisabeth Scharlatt, and Ina Stern. A very special shout-out to Saint Craig of Popelars, who saw something special and made booksellers believe. To all of you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

To my first readers, Karen Abbott, Maggie Dana, Kristy Kiernan, Maureen Ogle, Kathryn Puffett (who happens to be my mother), and Terence Bailey (who happens to be my father), for their love and support and for talking me off the ledge at regular intervals.

To Gary C. Payne, for answering my questions on all things circus, offering anecdotes, and checking my manuscript for accuracy.

To Fred D. Pfening III, Ken Harck, and Timothy Tegge, for graciously allowing me to use photographs from their collections. Special thanks to Fred for reading and helping me fine-tune the text.

To Heidi Taylor, assistant registrar at the Ringling Museum of Art, for helping me track down and secure the rights to various photographs, and to Barbara Fox McKellar, for allowing me to use her father’s photograph.

To Mark and Carrie Kabak, both for their hospitality and for introducing me to Mark’s former charges at the Kansas City Zoo.

To Andrew Walaszek, for providing and checking Polish translations.