The monk of Mokha / Dave Eggers.
Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2018Edition: First editionDescription: xiii, 327 pages : map ; 23 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781101947319
- 1101947314
- Alkhanshali, Mokhtar
- Alkhanshali, Mokhtar -- Travel -- Yemen (Republic)
- Coffee industry -- California -- San Francisco
- Businesspeople -- California -- San Francisco -- Biography
- Yemeni Americans -- California -- San Francisco -- Biography
- Coffee industry -- Yemen (Republic)
- TRAVEL -- Middle East -- General
- BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Literary Figures
- HISTORY -- Middle East -- Arabian Peninsula
- 338.7/66393092 B 23
- HD9199.U48 E34 2018
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Shelving location | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Cherry Hill Public Library | Cherry Hill Public Library | Biography | Biography Collection | B ALKHANSHALI,M. (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 33407004441109 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"A gripping, triumphant adventure" (Los Angeles Times ) from bestselling author Dave Eggers, 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.
Includes bibliographical references.
From bestselling author Dave Eggers, 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.
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Dion Graham has narrated ten-which is almost all-of McSweeney's founding publisher and literary powerhouse Eggers's books. Graham showcases his staggering genius for aural incarnations across gender, ethnicity, culture, age-whatever details Eggers writes, Graham inspiringly brings to listeners' ears. Their latest collaboration embodies Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Yemeni American entrepreneur who's brought the $16 cup of coffee to discerning American palates. His journey out of San Francisco's Tenderloin-via folding shirts at Banana Republic, selling shoes at Macy's, opening apartment doors-led him to his ancestral homeland, where drinking coffee began 500 years ago. Surviving malaria, gallstones, gastrointestinal attacks, not to mention kidnapping and civil war, Mokhtar gets the -Eggers and Graham treatment. VERDICT Given Eggers's literati status, ardent groupies will request all available formats.-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
Actor Graham proves he's a natural storyteller in this excellent reading of Eggers's account of the life of an ill-educated 25-year-old Yemeni-American raised in poverty in San Francisco. After discovering that coffee originated in Yemen, Mokha Alkhanshali creates for himself a mission: to restore Yemeni coffee to its original quality and fame. In doing so, he develops an encyclopedic understanding of the complicated processes of growing, harvesting, and transporting coffee beans, and learns how to judge their quality. Mokha's entrepreneurial quest takes him to Yemen to make final importing arrangements just as the country falls into civil war and international crisis. Graham's ever-changing intonation, well-handled accents, and nuanced characterizations keep listeners riveted through harrowing acts of bravery, heartrending setbacks, and hair-raising events. A Knopf hardcover. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Journalism is integral to Eggers' (Heroes of the Frontier, 2016) many-faceted, socially responsible literary life, and his nonfiction forte is telling the story of compelling individuals who have faced unfathomable adversity, as in Zeitoun (2009), the story of a Syrian American in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Here Eggers portrays Yemeni American Mokhtar Alkhanshali, who, after an unruly childhood in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood, a transformative stay in Yemen with his grandfather, and success as a car salesman, finally finds his calling, which proves to be quixotic and dangerous: he commits himself to restoring Yemen's long-forgotten standing as the world's first and best coffee producer. Eggers crisply recounts coffee's delectably roguish history, into which Mokhtar's Sisyphean struggles fit perfectly. Just as fast-talking, improvisational, kind, and monomaniacal Mokhtar attempts, against epic odds, to rekindle the lost art of quality coffee cultivation in Yemen, the country descends into a civil war made worse by al-Qaeda, Saudi bombings, and U.S. drone attacks. He repeatedly ends up in terrifying and dire situations, relying on his wits and bravado to save him and his companions. Readers will never take coffee for granted or overlook the struggles of Yemen after ingesting Egger's phenomenally well-written, juggernaut of a tale of an intrepid and irresistible entrepreneur on a complex and meaningful mission. This highly caffeinated adventure story is ready-made for the big screen. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Eggers, gifted and giving, will tour and make all kinds of media appearances with Alkhanshali, guaranteeing elevated interest in this broadly appealing true story.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2017 BooklistKirkus Book Review
For a son of Yemeni immigrants, the American dream takes the form of reawakening his ancestral homeland to its coffee legacy, the foundation for the industry he hopes to build.In his latest book, acclaimed novelist and McSweeney's founder Eggers (Heroes of the Frontier, 2016, etc.) offers an appealing hybrid: a biography of a charming, industrious Muslim man who has more ambition than direction; a capsule history of coffee and its origins, growth, and development as a mass commodity and then as a niche product; the story of Blue Bottle, the elite coffee chain in San Francisco that some suspect (and some fear) could turn into the next Starbucks; an adventure story of civil war in a foreign country; and a most improbable and uplifting success story. The protagonist, Mokhtar Alkhanshali, not only made it back from Yemen after the U.S. Embassy had closed, leaving remaining American citizens to their own devices, but he was followed by a boatload of some of the richest, best coffee the world has known, "the most expensive coffee Blue Bottle has ever sold$16 a cup." One delicious irony is that neither the author nor his subject had been much interested in coffee exotica, with the former initially dismissing anyone "who waited in line for certain coffees made certain ways[as] pretentious and a fool," while the latter had only had a couple dozen cups of coffee in his life before he became a grader of beans and then an importer. But this book is about much more than coffee or Muslim immigrants or the conflicts in Yemenit is about the undeniable value of "U.S. citizens who maintain strong ties to the countries of their ancestors and who, through entrepreneurial zeal and dogged labor, create indispensable bridges between the developed and developing worlds, between nations that produce and those that consume."Eggers gives his hero a lot of thematic baggage to carry, but it is hard to resist the derring-do of the Horatio Alger of Yemenite coffee. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.There are no comments on this title.