The Libri GmbH The Last Footprint Paperback

A forgotten notebook. A vanishing predator. A young photographer determined to discover what the mountains remember.Seventeen-year-old Mariam has always trusted photographs. A photograph captures what is there-or so she believes. Then her family uncovers the weathered notebooks of Salem, a mountain tracker who spent decades recording the wildlife, water, people and changing landscapes of Saudi Arabia. Among his observations are tantalising traces of one of the world's most elusive animals: the Arabian leopard.At first, Mariam believes Salem has left behind a mystery she can solve. Where did the leopards go? Could one still survive somewhere in the mountains?Following his observations into rugged wadis and high country, Mariam joins scientists, rangers and local communities searching for answers. Camera traps capture fragments. Tracks lead somewhere and then disappear. An ambiguous photograph taken at 03:17 seems capable of changing everything-if only anyone can prove what it shows.But the deeper Mariam follows Salem's trail, the more the mystery changes.The notebooks are not simply the record of a disappearing leopard. They tell the story of an entire landscape: water that shifted, prey that vanished, routes that changed, communities that adapted, and a delicate relationship between people and the wild animals living alongside them.Years later, Mariam faces a question far more difficult than the one that began her journey. Not whether the Arabian leopard can be brought back-but whether the land, the people and the leopard are truly ready.Set among the spectacular mountains and wadis of Saudi Arabia, The Last Footprint is an atmospheric adventure mystery about wildlife, family, memory and conservation-and about what it means to inherit responsibility for something you never personally lost.Some stories are not written. They are left behind.