Ape House, the new novel by Water for Elephants author Sara Gruen, came out today—and I know many of you are pumped: Ape House is BookPage’s top fiction pick for September and the movie version of Water for Elephants is due out this spring.
BookPage reviewer Deborah Donovan loved Ape House, praising Gruen’s exploration of the “mysterious and emotionally powerful human-animal bond.” Here’s more on the plot:
[Gruen portrays] a group of six bonobo apes housed in the fictional Great Ape Language Lab in Kansas City and the humans who either come to love them or seek to profit from their surprisingly advanced communication skills.
To prepare for writing Ape House, Gruen visited the real-life Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa. This book trailer captures her friendship with a bonobo and gives some more information on the book. (Book description starts at about the 4-minute mark.)
Anyone had a chance to start Ape House?
Also, if you’re interested in bonobos, don’t miss Vanessa Woods’ Bonobo Handshake, which came out in June.
Yes. No where near as good as Water for Elephants.
Am I the only one who realllllly DISLIKED Water for Elephants? What was all the fuss about that? It’s been about 3 years since I read it, so I can’t rememeber specifics, but I do remember it was painful…really painful to get through. I thought it was contrived, predictable, and boring. Anyways, just my two cents. Perhaps this new one will be better!