Much as he did in novels about Abraham Lincoln and Emily Dickinson, Jerome Charyn re-creates the voice of Theodore Roosevelt—the New York City police commissioner, self-appointed soldier, and soon-to-be 26th president—through his derring-do adventures, effortlessly combining superhero dialogue with haunting pathos. Beginning with Roosevelt's sickly childhood and concluding with McKinley's assassination, the novel positions Teddy as a "perfect bull in a china shop," a fearless crime fighter and pioneering environmentalist, and the cast includes his niece, Eleanor; a mountain lion named Josephine; and the legendary Rough Riders.