The Monk of Mokha

PROLOGUE

Mokhtar Alkhanshali and I agree to meet in Oakland. He has just returned from Yemen, having narrowly escaped with his life. An American citizen, Mokhtar was abandoned by his government and left to evade Saudi bombs and Houthi rebels. He had no means to leave the country. The airports had been destroyed and the roads out of the country were impassable. There were no evacuations planned, no assistance provided. The United States State Department had stranded thousands of Yemeni Americans, who were forced to devise their own means of fleeing a blitzkrieg tens of thousands of U.S.-made bombs dropped on Yemen by the Saudi air force.

I wait for Mokhtar (pronounced M KH-tar) outside Blue Bottle Coffee in Jack London Square. Elsewhere in the United States, there is a trial under way in Boston, where two young brothers have been charged with setting off a series of bombs during the Boston Marathon, killing nine and wounding hundreds. High above Oakland, a police helicopter hovers, monitoring a dockworkers strike going on at the Port of Oakland. This is 2015, fourteen years after 9/11, and seven years into the administration of President Barack Obama. As a nation we had progressed from the high paranoia of the Bush years; the active harassment of Muslim Americans had eased somewhat, but any crime perpetrated by any Muslim American fanned the flames of Islamophobia for another few months.

When Mokhtar arrives, he looks older and more self-possessed than the last time I d seen him. The man who gets out of the car this day is wearing khakis and a purple sweater-vest. His hair is short and gelled, and his goatee is neatly trimmed. He walks with a preternatural calm, his torso barely moving as his legs carry him across the street and to our table on the sidewalk. We shake hands, and on his right hand, I see that he wears a large silver ring, spiderwebbed with detailed markings, a great ruby-red stone set into it.

He ducks into Blue Bottle to say

Dave Eggers

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
 
"A vibrant depiction of courage and passion, interwoven with a detailed history of Yemeni coffee and a timely exploration of Muslim American identity."  David Canfield, Entertainment Weekly

The Monk of Mokha is not merely about coming to America, it is a thrilling chronicle of one man s coming-and-going between two beloved homelands a brilliant mirror on the global community we have become.   Marie Arana, author of American Chica and Bolivar: American Liberator

This American coming of age story reminds us all of how much our country is enriched by all who call it home.   Dalia Mogahed, author of Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think
 
Here s a story for our time: filled with ethos and pathos. You ll laugh, cry, and discover worlds unknown to most. From