The Monk of Mokha [Paperback]

The Monk of Mokhais the exhilarating 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 beleagured 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.“Exquisitely interesting… This is about the human capacity to dream—here, there, everywhere.”—Gabriel Thompson,San Francisco Chronicle
 
“A cracking tale of intrigue and bravery… A gripping, triumphant adventure story.” —Paul Constant,Los Angeles Times

I wish someone had asked me to blurb The Monk of Mokha so I could have said, 'I couldn’t put it down,' because I couldn’t put it down.  —Ann Patchett, Parnassas Bookstore blog
 
“A true account of a scrappy underdog, told in a lively, accessible style... Absolutely as gripping and cinematically dramatic as any fictional cliffhanger.”—Michael Lindgren,The Washington Post

“Remarkable… offers hope in the age of Trump… Ends as a kind of breathless thriller as Mokhtar braves militia roadblocks, kidnappings and multiple mortal dangers.”—Tim Adams,The Guardian
 
“A heady brew… Plainspoken but gripping…Dives deep into a crisis but delivers a jolt of uplift as well.”—Mark Athitakis,USA Today