Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

This was a endearing book full of quirky characters that were so odd that you just had to love them. The last chapter was the perfect ending to the most heartfelt story I have read in a long time.
The majority of the storyline is comprised of flashbacks as a ninety year old Jacob Jankowski remembers his life after he accidentally joined the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth during the early part of the Great Depression. When the young Jacob loses his parents in an automobile crash, he discovers that due to his veterinarian father's soft heart toward animals his father has been treating the town's creatures without pay for quite sometime. The bank forecloses on the farm soon after the funeral so Jacob is suddenly without his parents, the family farm, or the family business. Shocked and depressed, Jacob starts walking until he's exhausted and starving. Jumping a train in desperation, he soon finds himself traveling with a derelict circus.
Water for Elephants is the story of a young man's life journey, of his adventures with a scavenger circus, and of the friends he makes along the way - a dwarf named Kinko, an elephant named Rosie, and a chimp named Bobo.