Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants grabs your attention from the get-go: "I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other," informs narrator Jacob Jankowski, an elderly man living in a nursing home.

But Jacob is still able to vividly recall his younger years working for a traveling circus during the Great Depression.

It began when Jacob was a student at Cornell studying veterinary medicine. Right before his final exams, his parents die in a car accident, leading him to flee and hop a train. Little does he know he has joined the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a pale imitation of the Ringling Brothers.

Jacob eventually becomes the circus veterinarian, but along the way suffers squalid living conditions and the reality the circus performers and workers must face in order to survive. Uncle Al, owner of the circus, goes to great lengths to make a profit, including "redlighting" dispensable workers, which amounts to throwing people off the back of the moving train. Animal trainer August, a paranoid schizophrenic, horribly abuses both the animals and his wife, Marlena, with whom Jacob has fallen in love.

Through the elderly Jacob's memories, we are able to see his adventures and his spirit, which he has retained in old age. Perhaps the best part of the novel, though, is the uplifting ending, where readers get a glimpse of Jacob's future.

Gruen's detail is wonderful and points to an impressive amount of research on both traveling circuses and life during the Depression. Her characters are multi-dimensional, including several animal characters, particularly Rosie the elephant. Gruen seamlessly employs circus vernacular and transports readers into the desperate, gritty time of the Depression. As she explains in an interview in the end of the book, many circumstances were derived from real events.

Water for Elephants has received numerous awards and accolades and deservedly so. It's hard to put down and utterly engrossing, and it has left readers (including me!) salivating for Gruen's next book.

- Ashley