Cover of Still Life With Elephant

Still Life With Elephant

Can a badly abused elephant halfway across the world help a woman win back her cheating husband? In this funny, heartwarming story, the author of the beloved novel Horseplaypresents another smart, memorable heroine and the animals and men she loves.

Read more

Neelie Sterling never did listen well to the conversation around her. Always preoccupied with an inner monologue, she sometimes missed things. She was happy when Matt, her veterinarian husband, told her he was getting a collie; she liked dogs. He had said colleague, to help with his busy practice. The problems start when the pretty blonde colleague calls Neelie to say that she is pregnant with Matt's child. Sent into a tailspin, Neelie throws herself into her horse training business until she discovers that Matt is part of a group planning to leave for Zimbabwe to rescue a badly injured elephant. Thinking she could win Matt's heart again, Neelie manages to get included.

The trip is dangerous, exhilarating, and revealing. Neelie learns about herself as a wife and a woman. Back at home, she discovers secrets everywhere with her parents, with Matt, even in training an elephant. Fighting to keep her life from unraveling as she struggles to gain the elephant's trust, she ultimately learns that healing can be mutual.

Audience
adult

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Still Life With Elephant? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Still Life With Elephant. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Blessings of the Animals Shares fiction, animals, horses
  2. Spirit Horses Shares fiction, animals, horses
  3. Malaika Shares fiction, Africa, animals
  4. What Mother Never Told Me Shares fiction, chick lit

“People who read Still Life With Elephant tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Calling Home
  2. One Dance In Paris
  3. Feathered Serpent
  4. The Boundless Deep

“If you want more of the same (women’s fiction about animals), start with these.”

  1. Fear of Falling
  2. Mare's Nest
  3. War Horse
  4. Horse Miracles

“If it was the animals that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Elephant's Secret Sense: The Hidden Life of the Wild Herds of Africa
  2. Elephant Dance
  3. Ivory, Apes & Peacocks: Animals, Adventure and Discovery in the Wild Places of Africa
  4. The Horse Whisperer

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Husky in a Hut
  2. Elephant Talk: The Surprising Science of Elephant Communication
  3. Did Not Survive
  4. Zoe & Zak and the Ghost Leopard