Illinois Authors

The Illinois Center for the Book banner

Sara Gruen

Born: 1969 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Gruen and her family lived in Grayslake, Illinois.

Biography: Sara Gruen is an author with dual Canadian and American citizenship. She moved to the United States from Ottawa in 1999 for a technical writing job. Laid off two years later, she started writing fiction about animals. Gruen loves animals. Her third book, ''Water for Elephants'', became a ''New York Times'' bestseller and is available in 43 languages. It was made into a major motion picture in 2011 and starred Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson and Christoph Waltz and is now headed to Broadway. Gruen currently resides in North Carolina.


Awards:
  • '''''Ape House'''''
  • -- American Book Association IndieBound best seller
  • -- New York Times, USA Today, Boston Globe, Denver Post, L.A. Times, and Publishers Weekly best seller '''''Water for Elephants'''''
  • -- A New York Times best seller for over four years
  • -- No.

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction; Other

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Email: esaqueries@emmasweeneyagency.com.”
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaterforElephantsbook
Website: http://saragruen.com/
Sara Gruen on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=sara+++gruen+


Selected Titles

Ape House :
ISBN: 9781742691497 OCLC: 669127046

Allen & Unwin, Sydney : 2010.

An absorbing, heart-warming and ultimately uplifting story of how six bonobo apes change the lives of three humans, from master storyteller Sara Gruen, author of the international bestseller, Water for Elephants.

Ape house :
ISBN: 0385523211 OCLC: 551198608

Spiegel & Grau, New York : 2010.

When a family of bonobo apes who know American Sign Language are kidnapped from a language laboratory, their mysterious appearance on a reality TV show propels scientist Isabel Duncan, together with reporter John Thigpen, on a personal mission to rescue them. An entertaining book that calls into question our assumptions about these animals who share 99.4% of our DNA.

  At the water's edge
ISBN: 9781489093677 OCLC: 931520887

Bolinda audio, [Melbourne, Vic.] : 2015.

After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year's Eve of 1944, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis's father, a former army Colonel who is already ashamed of his colour-blind son's inability to serve in WWII. To Maddie's horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father's favour (and generosity) is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster and when he finds it he will restore his father's name and return to his father's good graces. In January 1945 they hitch a ride on a ship across the Atlantic while the war is still raging all around them. And Maddie, now alone and virtually abandoned in a foreign country, must begin to work out who she is and what she wants - the vacuous life she left behind or something more real? What she discovers - about the larger world and about herself - opens her eyes not only to the dark forces that exist around her but to the beauty and surprising possibilities of life.

At the water's edge :
ISBN: 0385523238 OCLC: 887605582

After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year's Eve of 1942, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis's father, a former army Colonel who is already embarrassed by his son's inability to serve in WWII due to his being colorblind. To Maddie's horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father's favor is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster. When he finds it, he will restore his father's name and return to his father's good graces (and pocketbook). Joined by their friend Hank, a wealthy socialite, the three make their way to Scotland in the midst of war. Each day the two men go off to hunt the monster, while another monster, Hitler, is devastating Europe. And Maddie, now alone in a foreign country, must begin to figure out who she is and what she wants. The novel tells of Maddie's social awakening: to the harsh realities of life, to the beauties of nature, to a connection with forces larger than herself, to female friendship, and finally, to love.

  Flying changes
ISBN: 9780062085078 OCLC: 722368152

HarperCollins Publishers, New York : 2011.

Anxiety rules Annemarie Zimmer's days-the fear that her relationship with the man she loves is growing stagnant; the fear that equestrian daughter Eva's dreams of Olympic glory will carry her far away from her mother . . . and into harm's way. For five months, Annemarie has struggled to make peace with her past. But if she cannot let go, the personal battles she has won and the heights she has achieved will have all been for naught. It is a time of change at Maple Brook horse farm, when loves must be confronted head-on and fears must be saddled and broken. But it is an unanticipated tragedy that will most drastically alter the fragile world of one remarkable family-even as it flings open gates that have long confined them, enabling them all to finally ride headlong and free.

  Flying changes /
ISBN: 0739460641 OCLC: 62138272

HarperTorch, New York : ©2005.

On the verge of turning forty, Annemarie Zimmer struggles to cope with the changes in her life as well as her anxieties over her relationship with the man she loves, her equestrian daughter's dreams of Olympic glory, and her own past.

  Riding lessons
ISBN: 9781525203480 OCLC: 953925090

As a world-class equestrian and Olympic contender, Annemarie Zimmer lived for the thrill of flight atop a strong, graceful animal. Then, at eighteen, a tragic accident destroyed her riding career and Harry, the beautiful horse she cherished. Now, twenty years later, Annemarie is coming home to her dying father's New Hampshire horse farm. Jobless and abandoned, she is bringing her troubled teenage daughter to this place of pain and memory, where ghosts of an unresolved youth still haunt the fields and stables -- and where hope lives in the eyes of the handsome, gentle veterinarian Annemarie loved as a girl ... and in the seductive allure of a trainer with a magic touch.

  Riding lessons /
ISBN: 0739439820 OCLC: 56086729

HarperTorch, New York : ©2004.

Twenty years after a tragic accident destroyed her riding career, Annemarie Zimmer returns to her dying father's New Hampshire horse farm with her troubled teenage daughter and encounters two men who could change her life.

  Water for elephants
ISBN: 9781510018501 OCLC: 931502177

When Jacob Jankowski - recently orphaned and suddenly adrift - jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters and misfits in the form of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a travelling circus struggling to survive the Great Depression.

Water for elephants :
ISBN: 1565124995 OCLC: 61362217

Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill, N.C. : ©2006.

A novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932. When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.--From publisher description.

 

 

Accessibility