The Monk of Mokha
Books | Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / Arab & Middle Eastern
4.3
(96)
Dave Eggers
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A gripping, triumphant adventure” (Los Angeles Times) from the bestselling author of The Circle—the incredible true story of a young Yemeni American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee but finds himself trapped in Sana’a by civil war.Mokhtar Alkhanshali is twenty-four and working as a doorman when he discovers the astonishing history of coffee and Yemen’s central place in it. He leaves San Francisco and travels deep into his ancestral homeland to tour terraced farms high in the country’s rugged mountains and meet beleaguered but determined farmers. But when war engulfs the country and Saudi bombs rain down, Mokhtar has to find a way out of Yemen without sacrificing his dreams or abandoning his people.
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More Details:
Author
Dave Eggers
Pages
352
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published Date
2018-01-30
ISBN
1101947322 9781101947326
Community ReviewsSee all
"2.5 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning of this book and shared my new knowledge about the origins of coffee with anyone who would listen. How did I not know where coffee beans (seeds) come from?? <br/><br/>Toward the middle I was less enthused about Mokhtar and felt like we were missing part of the story. It seemed like a massive leap from doorman-turned-unemployed to Coffee Magnate. I was rooting for Mokhtar while concurrently being frustrated/disappointed by his disinterest in looking for an actual job to fund his dream-fulfilling plans rather than repeatedly borrowing money from friends and relatives. <br/><br/>I was also skeptical of the many dramatic near-death experiences he had. One of my issues with nonfiction memoir-type books is that I have a hard time believing that a person can remember this much detail in their past experiences. Does Mokhtar actually recall what happened at every single checkpoint that he went through in all of his various treks across Yemen? <br/><br/>I struggled to finish the book and despite the interesting facts I learned about coffee and Yemen I don't know that I'd recommend this to anyone. I think had Eggers written the story as fiction like he did with What is the What (which I loved), I would have enjoyed it so much more."
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Gretchen Nord