While working on the novel Gruen received a rare invite to visit the Great Ape Trust, a scientific research facility in Des Moines, Iowa dedicated to understanding the culture, language and intelligence of great apes. In 2010 Gruen released her fourth novel, Ape House, after becoming fascinated with LANGUAGE acquisition and cognition in great apes. The book's paperback edition was a New York Times BESTSELLER and the novel has been translated into 44 languages. It presents circus life during the GREAT DEPRESSION while exploring MENTAL HEALTH, illusion and reality, and the interpersonal dynamics of love triangles. Told as a series of memories from the perspective of Jacob, now in his nineties, the historical romance focuses a great deal on the circus' many animals, particularly an elephant named Rosie.

Sara Gruen's best-known work is her third novel, Water For Elephants (2006), which chronicles the story of 23-year-old Jacob Jankowski's summer working on a travelling circus as a veterinarian. Now, 20 years later, Annemarie has returned to her dying father's home with her teenaged daughter, where she struggles to come to terms with her faltering human relationships and her unresolved experiences with HORSES. Her first novel, Riding Lessons (2004), and its sequel, Flying Changes (2005), tell the story of Annemarie, a former equestrienne and Olympic contender whose career was ended by a tragic accident at the age of 18. Gruen's focus on humans' complicated yet fulfilling relationships with fellow humans and animals alike runs throughout her works. As a dedicated animal lover, Gruen's bestselling novels deal greatly with animals, and she has established herself as a chronicler of both human and human-animal relationships. When she was laid off 2 years later she decided to try writing fiction. After 10 years in Ottawa Gruen moved to the United States in 1999 to work as a technical writer.

Raised in London, Ontario, Sara Gruen moved to Ottawa as a young adult, where she attended CARLETON UNIVERSITY and received a BA in English literature. Sara Gruen, novelist (b in Vancouver, BC 1969).

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