Author:Dave Eggers
From the best-selling author of The Circle - the gripping 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 becomes fascinated with the rich history of coffee and Yemen's central place in it. He leaves San Francisco and travels deep into his ancestral home to tour terraced farms high in the country's rugged mountains. He collects samples and organizes farmers and is on the verge of success when civil war engulfs the country. Saudi bombs rain down, the U.S. embassy closes, and Mokhtar has to find a way out of Yemen with only his hopes on his back.
The Monk of Mokha is the story of this courageous and visionary young man following the most American of dreams.
'Extraordinary... No story is more urgent' Observer
'Dramatic, aspirational smartly and engagingly written... Exactly what I want to read right now' The Times
'The antidote to Trumpism... This is a book that celebrates [the] exuberance of the human spirit' Mail on Sunday
'This book... is about the American dream, and the threat that it is under' Spectator
'Remarkable... full of derring-do, tenacity and exceptional luck' Metro
Readers will never take coffee for granted or overlook the struggles of Yemen after ingesting Eggers's phenomenally well-written, juggernaut tale of an intrepid and irresistible entrepreneur on a complex and meaningful mission, a highly caffeinated adventure story
—— BooklistA most improbable and uplifting success story... Eggers 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... It is hard to resist the derring-do of the Horatio Alger of Yemenite coffee
—— KirkusThe remarkable true story of a Yemeni coffee farmer... A vibrant depiction of courage and passion, interwoven with a detailed history of Yemeni coffee and a timely exploration of Muslim American identity
—— Entertainment WeeklyWorks as both a heart-warming success story with a winning central character and an account of real-life adventures that read with the vividness of fiction
—— Publishers WeeklyIt'll open your eyes - very wide - to the singular origins of your single origin
—— Esquire (UK)Definitely one for book club
—— Elle (UK)Eggers's narrative is guaranteed to be every bit as compelling as that of any novel
—— The ObserverDave Eggers returns to his "factional" mode with The Monk Of Mokha, in which a Yemeni immigrant to the US discovers an obsession with coffee, returns home, and is caught in a war. Given his previous form with What Is The What and Zeitoun I have high hopes of this book
—— The ScostmanThis is a book that celebrates ethnic diversity and the exuberance of the human spirit
—— Mail on Sunday[Dave Eggers] is on a mission to use the platform he has created as a writer/activist to give direct voice to the marginalised or unheard... No story is more urgent
—— ObserverBridgemakers such as Mokhtar courageously embody America's reason for being - as a place of radical opportunity and ceaseless welcome... a blended people united not by stasis and cowardice and fear, but by irrational exuberance, by global enterprise on a human scale
—— The GuardianIt's hard to imagine ALkhanshali's story being told with more pace, scope or sensitivity. An extraordinary adventure
—— The TimesMokhtar's story is a remarkable one, full of derring-do, tenacity and exceptional luck
—— MetroIt is impossible not to root for Mokhtar. And as with all good bildungsromans, it is as much the reader as the hero who receives an education
—— The Daily TelegraphBrad Stone's The Upstarts reads like a detective story: A page turning who-did-it on the creation of billion dollar fortunes and the ruthless murder of traditional businesses. No single book will tell you more about what life feels like inside companies like Airbnb and Uber as they grow from mere ideas into merciless machines for innovation, riches and unease. The sweat. The stress. The power highs of new instant fortunes. It's all here. You won't be able to put The Upstarts down. And when you finally do, you'll look at your own company and career in a totally fresh way.
—— Joshua Cooper Ramo, author of The Seventh SenseBrad Stone gives us a lively, fascinating picture of the new new thing in technology - startups like Uber and Airbnb that are disrupting old businesses across the world. He provides a much needed glimpse into the companies that fail as well as the ones that make it big. And he points to the broad policy issues raised by these new technologies, which are surely no fun for the people whose lives are being disrupted.
—— Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American WorldFor a flavour of how fast the world is changing, turn to Brad Stone’s The Upstarts
—— DirectorBrad Stone unravels the facts from the mythology surrounding the companies’ rise
—— Harvard Business ReviewA penetrating study marked by the same thorough reporting that distinguished [The Everything Store]
—— SF Gate