Cheetah: Caught in Conflict

The Asiatic Cheetah, on the brink of extinction, roams its last home, the remote Iranian desert. Here you will meet the unsung heroes fighting to save it against the severest of droughts and the poachers fighting for their own survival. On top of this, Western sanctions are biting hard...

Ex-poacher Mostafa wins the coveted post of Ranger under the new ‘Poacher to Ranger’ scheme; much to the joy of Azar his wife. Mr Hasani, the visionary Cheetah Reserve director, knows in his soul that Conservation can only succeed by changing hearts and minds and never by policing alone. Mostafa’s first mission is to lead an Irish photographer to catch a cheetah picture for an international magazine. But out in the wilderness disaster hits. Mission and scheme are thrown upside down and Mostafa reverts to his dark ways. But his daughter Nasrin dares to pursue him into the wild and try to wrestle him from his madness. There are clues that cheetah cubs have been born. Finding them could still fulfil the mission and bring new hope to the cheetah’s survival.

Inspired by true events, Cheetah; Caught in Conflict is a love song to the fabled cheetah itself, to the richness of Persian culture, to the golden-hearted people that the author met, and to the resilience of the human spirit.

SAMA SOLTANI is a Kurdish Iranian illustrator and painter. She studied at Tehran Art University, and in the UK for her M.A. in Fine Art. Sama’s work has been exhibited internationally, with many solo UK shows. She has illustrated several Persian literary works: her latest, a new edition of Omar Khayyam.