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Water for Elephants

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Water for Elephants

By: Sara Gruen
Narrated by: David LeDoux, John Randolph Jones, Various
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About this listen

Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. In the Depression era, 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: Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and the circus' animal trainer); and Rosie, the seemingly untrainable elephant Jacob cares for.

©2006 Sara Gruen (P)2006 HighBridge Company Fiction Historical Fiction Women's Fiction Heartfelt Tear-jerking Elephant Feel-Good

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Critic reviews

"This marvelously exciting and satisfying book has been given the engaging audio production it deserves." ( Audiofile)
" Water for Elephants is fun, sweet and thrilling and will pull you into the mysterious life of the circus so far that you won't want to leave." ( Guardian)
All stars
Most relevant
I'd recomend as an easy listen that holds your attention. Welll written and colourful for those with visual imagination.

Nice book with twists, shocks, love and laughter.

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Exceptional narration.
Such a strong story. Tears and laughter and dread and lots of rooting for Jacob and his crew.

Water for Elephants

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A wonderful story and thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook which was beautifully narrated. Highly Recommend.

Fabulous Audiobook

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I loved the fact that two different actors read for the different ages of the one man, this made it more visual. A hard listen at times because of the cruelty to humans and animals but it brought a harsh moment in history to life in vivid detail.

Compelling

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Not my usual story line, but glad I picked this one.
Well narrated story of a young boy joining the circus and switching to him as an old ninety something (he never could remember how old he was!) reminiscing in the old people home.
Just one thing that irritated me, with no warning occasionally at the end of a chapter, just as your are deep in the story some unrelated music starts playing. The tone didn't even go with what was happening.
But apart from that a good interesting book about the hard life in a circus.

Nice to listen to a different story

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