The Breath of the Lion is a story about a man’s life, beginning with the period after WWII, continuing through the coming of age sixties, the triumphs and tragedies of manhood, and finding peace and resolution in old age. The story has unfolding mysteries around losing a father, mother, wife, son, and friends and Sean’s perseverance in life and, in the end, reunite with his first love.

About the book

As SEAN BUCHANAN prepares to return to Des Moines, Iowa, to bury his ninety-year-old mother, he receives a letter from MADELINE BROOKHART, MADDY. She writes it is urgent they meet—she has something important to tell him. They agree to meet at the Art Center, where she is teaching a class on Robert Cole’s masterpieces. It is there that a secret is revealed she has kept since youth.

The story is told as MADELINE BROOKHART, MADDY, a woman from SEAN BUCHANAN’S past, describes the Robert Cole Voyage of Life paintings: Childhood, Youth, Manhood and Old Age. The paintings are a metaphor for Sean’s life—the verdant landscape and calm waters of childhood turn turbulent in youth, and the rocky shores of manhood open to a promising sky of old age.