Drury Lane Book Club – The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers

Monk of Mokha is he 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, unable to pay for college, and working as a doorman when he becomes fascinated with the rich history of coffee. He travels to Yemen and visits countless farms, collecting samples, eager to bring improved cultivation methods to the countryside. In 2015 he is on the verge of success when civil war engulfs the country. The US Embassy closes, Saudi bombs rain down, and Mokhtar is trapped in Yemen, desperate to escape. A heart-pounding true story, The Monk of Mokha weaves together the history of coffee, the ongoing Yemeni civil war, and the courageous journey of a young man–a Muslim and a US citizen–following the most American of dreams.

“It combines—in a single moving narrative—history, politics, biography, psychology, adventure, drama, despair, hope, triumph and the irrepressible, indomitable nature of the human spirit at its best.”
— Imam Zaid Shakir

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