'DON'T MISS YOUR BUS STOP ... reading this week's talking-point book, Ape House by Water for Elephants author Sara Gruen. It's a funny, provocative lampoon of pop culture, about a group of sign-language-speaking bonobo monkeys who are liberated from a science lab, only to wind up on a reality TV show.' -- Grazia 'Ape House is gripping, emotionally exhilarating and, by a large margin, the best novel I've read in the past 12 months. Or perhaps 24... A twisting pacy plot ... vivid page-turner ... mining the same literary vein as Jodi Picoult and TC Boyle whose strong, conflicted characters and ethically charged plots deliver brilliant but challenging fiction.' -- James Urquhart, Independend 'If you love animals like I do, it's a must read.' -- Ellen DeGeneres, host of the Ellen Show 'had me instantly enraptured' -- Dallas Morning News 20100912 'Gruen's astute, wildly entertaining tale of interspecies connection is a novel of verve and conscience - the fate of the bonobos is a brilliantly satirical surprise.' -- Booklist (starred review) 20100912 'It is a page-turner written with flair, imagination and a sharp sense of irony.' -- Globe and Mail 20100910 'Very, very few novels can change the way you look at the world around you. This one does.' -- Robert Goolrick, author of A Reliable Wife 20100910 'Consider reality TV, meth labs, over-the-top animal-rights activists, Botox, tabloids and Internet diatribes, and you, too, might come to the conclusion: People should be more like animals. Sara Gruen's entertaining, enlightening new novel will certainly leave you thinking so.' -- Miami Herald 20100905 'Has the dramatic tension of a crime thriller... Twists and turns, lies, and treachery abound in this funny, clever, and perceptive story.' -- Library Journal (starred review) 20100905 'Ape House is difficult to put down, filled as it is with genuine hilarity and heartbreak.' -- Toronto Star 20101002 'The biggest accomplishment of Ape House is that it brings bonobos to life. The writing is effortless, as though Gruen sat down and wrote the book in one breezy afternoon.' -- Vanessa Woods, New Scentist 20100910 'Gruen delivers a tale that's full of heart, hope, and compelling questions about who we really are.' -- Redbook 20100910 'Propulsive... Gruen writes with the commercial breathlessness of a cozier Dan Brown.' -- Entertainment Weekly 20100910 'Ape House is a moving account of a close bond between human and ape - and human and human too.' -- Take a Break (Fiction Feast) 20100910 'Sara Gruen has the double gift of writing colourful page-turners and researching off-beat subjects with broad appeal... Gruen writes about her animal characters with energy and empathy.' -- Financial Times 20100910 'enlightening and believable' -- Guardian 20100910 'Gruen writes about her animal characters with energy and empathy... [she] has a lovely, noticing eye. Fron tiny silver flecks drifting off champagne cork foil, to a dogbowl sliding away from a rescued pit bill, there is plenty of surface detail to detain the reader.' -- Financial Times 20100910