Sara Gruen was born inVancouver and raised in London, Ontario. She studied English literature at Carleton University in Ottawa.  In 1999, she moved to the United States to continue her career as a technical writer. When she was laid off in 2001 she decided to write fiction full time rather than looking for another job in the software field.

Gruen's first two novels, Riding Lessons and Flying Changes, both enjoyed moderate critical success. Her third release, Water for Elephants was published by Algonquin Publishing.  Water for Elephants spent 12 weeks on the New York Times hardcover fiction best-seller list and sold 248,000 copies.  The movie rights were optioned to Andrew R. Tennenbaum, a co-producer of the Jason Bourne spy movies, in a deal worth more than $1 million if the movie is made.

Last fall, Gruen sold her fourth novel, Ape House, on the basis of a 12-page summary to Spiegel & Grau, who paid $5 million for Ape House and another as-yet-unnamed book. It is slated to be released in October, 2008.

Currently she lives north of Chicago with her husband, three children, four cats, two goats, two dogs and a horse.