Gruen has had a life-long fascination with human-ape discourse, with a particular interest in Bonobo apes.

When a number of apes are kidnapped from a language laboratory, their mysterious appearance on a reality TV show calls into question our assumptions about these animals who share 99.4% of our DNA.

Ape House features the amazing Bonobo ape. Gruen sold her fourth novel, Ape House (2010), on the basis of a 12-page summary to Random House, which won that and another of her novels in a bidding war with 8 other publishers. This #1 New York Times bestseller has been printed in 44 languages and the movie version (2011) stars Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz, and Robert Pattinson. Readers fell in love with its story of Jacob, the young man tossed by fate onto a rickety circus train that was home to Rosie, the untrainable elephant. That book, of course, went on to become one of the top-selling novels of our time. She wrote a second novel, Flying Changes (2005), also about horses.Īlthough her first two novels sold several hundred thousands of copies-and Riding Lessons was a best seller-her third release, Water for Elephants, was initially turned down by her publisher at the time, forcing Gruen to find another publisher.

A devoted animal lover, her first novel, Riding Lessons (2004), explored the intimate and often healing spaces between people and animals and was a USA Today bestseller. When she was laid off two years later, she decided to try her hand at writing fiction. from Canada in 1999 for a technical writing job. Sara Gruen is a Canadian-born author, whose books deal greatly with animals she is a supporter of numerous charitable organizations that support animals and wildlife. She lives in western North Carolina with her husband, three sons, and a menagerie of rescued animals. Sara Gruen is the author of the New York Times bestseller Water for Elephants and Riding Lessons.

Currently-lives in western North Carolina.

And an obsession is born that could shatter her fragile world. and in the seductive allure of a trainer with a magic touch.īut everything will change yet again with one glimpse of a white striped gelding startlingly similar to the one Annemarie lost in another lifetime. 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.

Now, twenty years later, Annemarie is coming home to her dying father's New Hampshire horse farm. Then, at eighteen, a tragic accident destroyed her riding career and Harry, the beautiful horse she cherished. As a world-class equestrian and Olympic contender, Annemarie Zimmer lived for the thrill of flight atop a strong, graceful animal.

Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen