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The author, a pioneer in what he calls “affection training�� of animals, runs an exotic animal ranch, working with movies and television that require animal stunts. He details how he raised a lion, Zamba, from a cub, not merely as a tamed animal or even a pet but a true member of the family. Zamba stars in a couple of movies and many ads, but Helfer talks mainly about the metaphysical bond he and the lion had, their trip to Africa to shoot a film, and the tragic storm that destroyed his ranch.

It’s a pretty interesting story, written in a wide-eyed, credulous, mystic style that could probably have been punched up by a decent editor. Helfer undoubtedly makes a few events seem a bit more portentous than they really were, and I doubt that angry anti-white Muslims in Africa really gaped in wonder at his godlike control over lions. I would have preferred more of the mundane, but still fascinating, logistics of living with a lion, like the extra large bed Helfer had built for Zamba, or things that happened on a movie set. But the bare facts of the bond between animal and man, the photos of Zamba with Helfer’s family, are enough to justify the book’s existence.