Talks & Entertainment

From the best-selling author of The Circle and What Is the What comes The Monk of Mokha, the true story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a 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.

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 to collect samples from farms, 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 U.S. Embassy closes, Saudi bombs rain down, and Mokhtar is trapped in Yemen, desperate to escape.

The Monk of Mokha chronicles the courageous journey of a young man—a Muslim and a US citizen—following the most American of dreams.

Eggers is the author of eleven books, the founder of McSweeney’s, and the cofounder of 826 National, a network of youth writing and tutoring centers with locations around the country. Book signing to follow.