Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: The Monk of Mokha

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 31, 2022

Eggers is a fantastic writer and this is an exciting, fascinating story that made me want to finish it in one sitting. It also exposed me to worlds I knew nothing about (Coffee, Yemen, and its culture).
Highly recommended!

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fiona frank

Coffee its history. Excellent.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 18, 2020

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Informative. Interesting. Well written. Highly recommended for those interested in coffee (its history, the best beans and how best to enjoy and cherish a cup of good coffee) and the sad and horrific effects of senseless wars and man’s indefatigable determination to thrive in these inhuman horrible and debilitating environments. Wonder what the protagonist and his team are doing today. Good luck!!! Blessings on all in war torn spots!!!

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esa

Real page-turner!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 4, 2020

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Captivating and thoughtfully written. A must read for anyone wanting to read an exciting, true story.

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Amazon Customer

It is a true story

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 15, 2023

This true story is so well told and well written that it capitaveted me from page one. I read it in two days - and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read.

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Vanessa

Interesting book

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 28, 2018

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Excellent Book, i loved it.

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Amazon Customer

Nice read

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on January 28, 2023

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nice read

BookWorm

Incredible true story, better than fiction

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 25, 2019

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This is an extraordinary true story that is more compelling and incredible than most fiction. I really thought it was a novel - and if it was, it would be an excellent one. Eggers' writing is so good and entertaining that the reading experience is much closer to a novel, although some parts are more fact-heavy than others. The subject of the book is Mokhtar, a young American who finds his calling in reviving the fortunes of Yemeni coffee. Unfortunately he chooses a time of great politic unrest to start his project, and finds himself caught up in the civil war. However despite his life being at risk, he remains determined to improve the lot of coffee farmers in the wartorn country and goes to unbelievable lengths to set up his export business.

It would make a fantastic film - it's got all the excitement, and Hollywood would love the rags to riches story. Mokhtar is a wonderful character - both ordinary and extraordinary, and shows how an average person can achieve incredible things in the right circumstances. It's an inspiring story that shows sometimes real life can be better and stranger than fiction, and that happy endings can occur. Even in the midst of war and despair, hope and improvement are possible - and can be achieved by ordinary people.

It's the most uplifting thing I've read in a long time, and I have nothing but admiration for the young man who set out to do something worthwhile, and wouldn't let anything stand in his way. I'd highly recommend this book, which is as pleasurable a read as any novel due to its fiction-like excitement and good writing,, especially if you're feeling down.

2 people found this helpful

DanaJ

A solid cup overall despite the weaker finish

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

There is a lot to like about The Monk of Mokha, Eggers’ book about a Yemeni American sharing his ancestors’ precious coffee with the world. The story is more than enough to prove to any Don Quixote out there that adventure still exists even in the 21st century. It’s also a pleasant introduction to the world of specialty coffee - a treat even for a non-drinker such as myself - and an ode to the benefits of direct / fair trade.

We’re rooting for Mokhtar and his dreams as soon as we learn of the hustling young man, living (as all children of immigrants do) in between San Francisco and Yemen. Herein lies my particular gripe with the book though: Eggers does an excellent job painting a nuanced portrait of Mokhtar and his world in the first chapters - with depth, color and especially emotion. By contrast, the last third of the book, while thrilling given the (oftentimes life or death) situations our protagonist encounters, feels somewhat too fast paced / rushed for us to really savor it.

Is it perhaps because Eggers could easily visit the landmarks that dot Mokhtar’s California life, but wasn’t able to do the same for his Yemeni life (for understandable security reasons)? That’s my best guess as to why this latter third isn’t as satisfying. Either way, I’m happy enough with the flavor of my first sips to recommend the whole cup.

One person found this helpful

KasaC

Latest Masterwork from Dave Eggers

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

I love the way Dave Eggers tells a larger story through a personal lens. As with Valentino Dent (What is the What) and Abdulrahman Zeitoun, he has taken the life of Mokhtar Alkhanshali and crafted it into a book so readable and yet so informative and true it becomes a real page turner. His books are proof of his extraordinary empathy, and this one is no exception. Mokhtar is a young man of Yemeni heritage, who grew up on the mean streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin, but his family was supportive if puzzled by some of his choices. He held many low paying jobs, never giving up hope that he would discover his calling even when at his lowest. It was a chance text from a friend that sent him across the street from where he was a doorman (lobby ambassador) to the Hills Bros. building on the Embarcadero, where he saw the twenty-foot statue of a man in full Yemeni dress grasping a cup of coffee to his lips. Despite the flowers on the statue's thobe (no self respecting native would ever wear that), he was struck by the relationship to the coffee cup, which led him to study about the origin of history of coffee and the role Yemen played in its manufacture. I'm not giving anything away by revealing that he eventually finds success as an importer of coffee from Yemen, but it is that history, his experiences in discovery and marketing, and his reasons for developing the industry in his native land that make this book a real Eggers work. High recommend.

37 people found this helpful

AA

Meet the Indiana Jones of Coffee!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

In 'The Monk of Mokha', Dave Eggers takes us on a modern-day swashbuckling adventure that starts almost uneventfully, in one of the roughest neighborhoods of San Francisco, before taking us to Yemen and the chaos that ensues therein. Our hero, aspiring coffee entrepreneur Mokhtar Alkhanshali, is a real-life Indiana Jones, always taking on his next task with gusto and bravado but ultimately getting backed into a corner at every turn. Like Indy, he uses his wits and sheer willpower (and a lot of luck!) to overcome every obstacle put in front of him.

There were parts of this book that I just laughed out loud at and had to pause to regain my composure, and other parts where I just couldn't put the book down, wanting to know what happened next. Throughout I learned a lot about coffee but what I loved most is that the entire motivation of Mokhtar's journey is quite selfless - he wants a better life for Yemeni farmers, and Yemen in general. Like Mokhtar, I am a product of mixed identities, caught between East and West, and I appreciated how he leveraged his advantages and privilege to help people - his people - in Yemen.

I think one of the great lessons of 'The Monk of Mokha' is not to be afraid to dream big, and not to give up on your dreams when things aren't going your way. In Mokhtar's story, you'll find a protagonist who is charming, determined, but ultimately, (and I hope he forgives me for saying this!) a little crazy. Not bad crazy. Good crazy. The kind of crazy that can change people's lives for the better. I believe that the people - like Mokhtar - who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who eventually do.

In 'The Monk of Mokha', you'll find several cups of crazy. And it will leave you wanting more.

72 people found this helpful

5 star		64%
4 star		26%
3 star		7%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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