Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

Anyone who's ever had romantic notions of running away to join the circus should read this book before they act on those dreams. This book opens up the underbelly of the circus, from the personal relationships to the dangers associated with the animals. Even with all that, it still inspires romantic dreams of running away and joining the circus, largely because the author is so adept at creating meaningful, larger than life characters that beg the reader to understand them.

Protagonist Jacob Jankowski narrates the book in a series of flashbacks interespresed with his real-time experience in a nursing home at the age of "ninety, or ninety-three," he simply can't remember. As a young college student, he receives word his parents have been killed in a car accident, and discovers they were deeply in debt, largely because they paid for his college tuition. Crushed, and without resources, he leaves college just days before graduation and stumbles onto a train, home of the Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

Jacob, trained as a veternarian, takes a job caring for the animals of the circus, and a new life is born. The characters (and animals) come to life as the story progresses, and the book is enhanced by real, historic circus photos that help make the story even more convincing. Jacob matures, falls in love, and comes to make a life for himself inside the walls of the tents and baggage cars of the circus. He keeps a mysterious secret within himself until he dies, just another twist in this well-written tale. You just may fall in love with Rosie the elephant, Camel the man, and most of all, Jacob, the boy who ran away to join the circus and became a man in the process.