---
product_id: 13908224
title: "Zamba: The True Story of the Greatest Lion That Ever Lived – A Hollywood Story of Love, Affection Training, and an Eighteen-Year Bond"
price: "VT5065"
currency: VUV
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/13908224-zamba-the-true-story-of-the-greatest-lion-that-ever
store_origin: VU
region: Vanuatu
---

# Zamba: The True Story of the Greatest Lion That Ever Lived – A Hollywood Story of Love, Affection Training, and an Eighteen-Year Bond

**Price:** VT5065
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Zamba: The True Story of the Greatest Lion That Ever Lived – A Hollywood Story of Love, Affection Training, and an Eighteen-Year Bond
- **How much does it cost?** VT5065 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/13908224-zamba-the-true-story-of-the-greatest-lion-that-ever)

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## Description

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Review: The Strong Message of Love - Having just finished reading "Modoc" by the same author, I began reading "Zamba" with high expectations, and was not disappointed. The story of Zamba carries a purposeful message: kindness and love in dealing with all animals, especially when training them. The story of Zamba offers details from the beginnings of a baby lion's bonding with his human companion and this effective bonding carries them not only through several hair-raising adventures in Africa where they have an elongated stay while filming a movie, but through some tragic and destructive events where any possible "good" seems to be far beyond reach. As our freedoms to raise lions or other wild animals have disappeared with overpopulation and the ever-more stringent laws that humans write to "save themselves" this story gave delightful details about the author and his family living, sleeping, and playing with Zamba. I delighted in the special bed built for Zamba, to allow him to sleep with his human. The patience, loyalty, and serenity shown by Zamba throughout his life show the powerful effect of true love and the respect it brings, not only between the human and lion, in this case, but an important, written account to testify to the world. I do think there is a better world ahead, and this book gives a glimpse of it.
Review: A must-read for animal lovers! - I read this aloud to my husband and our almost-7yo daughter and we all loved it! We all were weeping by the end. It is a real page-turner, very difficult to read only one chapter a night! :) Zamba himself was an amazingly gentle lion all his life. It's stunning to realize that humans and animals could have such a strong connection -- truly communicating without words. The adventures in this book are truly jaw-dropping at every turn of the page! So many times, you want to hold your breath, wondering how things will turn out -- you almost have to keep reminding yourself that things must come out OK because there's still so much book left! FOR KIDS?? One caveat is that there are some sparse violent scenes that are not really appropriate for children (unless they're used to violent movies -- our daughter was not, so I skipped them as best as I could.) The first chapter will give you a sense of the level of violence that very rarely, but does show up in the book. Note that there's an abridged picture book by the same author more appropriate for kids. For adults, the rare violence is well worth the price for the joy and love and triumph throughout the book! From a writer's perspective, he is a little unpolished. The timeline of the book is disjointed and hard to follow. Also, he will tell you ahead of time something you need to know for the next paragraph -- almost like telling you the punchline before the joke. (I think he did a much better job with Modoc. He also got better as the book went on.) Just a nit-picky geeky writer thing -- your average reader will likely not care. Certainly the subject matter makes up a thousand times for unpolished writing. A note: I'm glad I read Modoc first, because she makes a cameo in Zamba, and I was literally balling my eyes out, knowing what that amazing elephant had been through by that time, and what a hero she continued to be. My husband and daughter had no clue and it didn't have the same impact. Also, Zamba is, I think, a deeper, more philosophical book, whereas Modoc was more an adventure story (the philosophy was there, but more in the background.) (I haven't read Beaty and the Beasts, or other similar books by members of his close family yet, but they are next!) In that sense, Zamba is a greater and deeper book than Modoc. I'm already buying a number of copies for friends!! Certainly I would recommend it!! One of my all-time favorite books!

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #688,811 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #64 in Biology of Mammals #642 in Biology of Wildlife #16,606 in Memoirs (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars (383) |
| Dimensions  | 5.31 x 0.65 x 8 inches |
| Edition  | Reprint |
| ISBN-10  | 0060761334 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0060761332 |
| Item Weight  | 8.8 ounces |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 288 pages |
| Publication date  | June 27, 2006 |
| Publisher  | Harper Perennial |

## Images

![Zamba: The True Story of the Greatest Lion That Ever Lived – A Hollywood Story of Love, Affection Training, and an Eighteen-Year Bond - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/717Vc2sTixL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Strong Message of Love
*by P***A on October 26, 2009*

Having just finished reading "Modoc" by the same author, I began reading "Zamba" with high expectations, and was not disappointed. The story of Zamba carries a purposeful message: kindness and love in dealing with all animals, especially when training them. The story of Zamba offers details from the beginnings of a baby lion's bonding with his human companion and this effective bonding carries them not only through several hair-raising adventures in Africa where they have an elongated stay while filming a movie, but through some tragic and destructive events where any possible "good" seems to be far beyond reach. As our freedoms to raise lions or other wild animals have disappeared with overpopulation and the ever-more stringent laws that humans write to "save themselves" this story gave delightful details about the author and his family living, sleeping, and playing with Zamba. I delighted in the special bed built for Zamba, to allow him to sleep with his human. The patience, loyalty, and serenity shown by Zamba throughout his life show the powerful effect of true love and the respect it brings, not only between the human and lion, in this case, but an important, written account to testify to the world. I do think there is a better world ahead, and this book gives a glimpse of it.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A must-read for animal lovers!
*by K***L on January 7, 2013*

I read this aloud to my husband and our almost-7yo daughter and we all loved it! We all were weeping by the end. It is a real page-turner, very difficult to read only one chapter a night! :) Zamba himself was an amazingly gentle lion all his life. It's stunning to realize that humans and animals could have such a strong connection -- truly communicating without words. The adventures in this book are truly jaw-dropping at every turn of the page! So many times, you want to hold your breath, wondering how things will turn out -- you almost have to keep reminding yourself that things must come out OK because there's still so much book left! FOR KIDS?? One caveat is that there are some sparse violent scenes that are not really appropriate for children (unless they're used to violent movies -- our daughter was not, so I skipped them as best as I could.) The first chapter will give you a sense of the level of violence that very rarely, but does show up in the book. Note that there's an abridged picture book by the same author more appropriate for kids. For adults, the rare violence is well worth the price for the joy and love and triumph throughout the book! From a writer's perspective, he is a little unpolished. The timeline of the book is disjointed and hard to follow. Also, he will tell you ahead of time something you need to know for the next paragraph -- almost like telling you the punchline before the joke. (I think he did a much better job with Modoc. He also got better as the book went on.) Just a nit-picky geeky writer thing -- your average reader will likely not care. Certainly the subject matter makes up a thousand times for unpolished writing. A note: I'm glad I read Modoc first, because she makes a cameo in Zamba, and I was literally balling my eyes out, knowing what that amazing elephant had been through by that time, and what a hero she continued to be. My husband and daughter had no clue and it didn't have the same impact. Also, Zamba is, I think, a deeper, more philosophical book, whereas Modoc was more an adventure story (the philosophy was there, but more in the background.) (I haven't read Beaty and the Beasts, or other similar books by members of his close family yet, but they are next!) In that sense, Zamba is a greater and deeper book than Modoc. I'm already buying a number of copies for friends!! Certainly I would recommend it!! One of my all-time favorite books!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A story about a friendship.
*by T***G on February 8, 2017*

This is a story about a friendship between a Lion and a Man. It is well written, but if you read it in hope of learning about the training methods that Ralph Helfer you will be dissapointed. The book oozes of Ralph Helfer's love for Zamba, for what he tries to do for and with the animals, perhaps sometimes even for him self. I have left me with a feeling of being touched in my soul by Zamba. Because even though it is mostly described out of what Ralph Helfer thinks, you (I think) will feel the empathy and compassion Zamba show his world. Perhaps you will appreciate your own animals even more and what they are cable of doing after you read this book and you should read it. So why did I not give this book 5 stars? Because it left me with some questions I think it should have been answered. I wanted to know more about how he trained Zamba? In the kindle version there is no pictures, why? I also wanted to know about the animals cages, how big were they? What did the trainers do enrich the animals day? Why did he not start a short prologue explaining how the affection training is done?

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*Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu*
*Store origin: VU*
*Last updated: 2026-05-16*