Even aside from the remarkable connection to her book - Sara, 52, had indeed researched a real-life performer named Lottie - Murdoch’s letter stood out. The letter came from Gruen’s publisher in June 2015, which had forwarded it to her home in Asheville, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, her son (the youngest of her three adult children), and a menagerie of pets, including horses named Tia and Fancy. Murdoch wondered if Sara had based one of her characters, Lottie the Aerialist, on his grandmother if so, his “long departed grandfolks would have sure been tickled and honored.” He signed off “Respectfully, Chuck Murdoch” and added a strange moniker: “Badfish.” When he was a kid, he wrote, his grandpa told tales of performing in an early-20th-century circus with his teenage bride, Lottie. “Oh man … it was AWESOME!” The 2006 book, a tale of star-crossed lovers in a traveling circus, was personal for Murdoch. “I just finished devouring your WATER FOR ELEPHANTS,” he wrote. C76287, sentenced to life without parole for first-degree murder. The sender’s name was Charles Murdoch, prisoner No. Since her novel Water for Elephants sold 10 million copies worldwide and inspired a movie starring Reese Witherspoon, Sara Gruen has received 60 or so letters from people behind bars, but this one was different. It began with a letter from California’s Pleasant Valley State Prison.
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