The monk of mocha
The monk of mocha (original title: The Monk of Mokha ) is a novel by Dave Eggers from the year 2018 . He describes the attempts of a son of Yemeni immigrants living in San Francisco to market coffee from his homeland as a specialty coffee in the USA . The book was published in 2018 in a German translation by Ulrike Wasel and Klaus Timmermann.
content
Mokhtar Alkhanshali grew up as the son of Yemeni immigrants in Tenderloin , one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in San Francisco, and looked for a meaningful job after dropping out of college. After a few unsatisfactory attempts, he came up with the idea of exporting coffee beans from his home country to the USA. He is gradually familiarizing himself with the topic, talking to experts and working for companies that process specialty coffee. After all, he flies to Yemen and makes contacts there, both with coffee traders and with farmers. He drives around the country and visits remote villages. Back in the USA, he drafts a business plan, tries to convince investors and works with partners on how to proceed. Finally he flies back to Yemen, which is caught in a state crisis. The Huthi -Rebellen back from the north before, and Mokhtar drives a truck through the country to Aden to come up with a suitcase full of coffee beans out of the country.
background
The novel is based on the real story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali. Eggers interviewed Mokhtar intensively, was at the original locations and carried out further, extensive research. In the prologue Eggers writes: "This is not a novel, but a representation of events as they were perceived and experienced by Mokhtar Alkanshali".
shape
The 379-page novel is divided into a prologue, 5 books with 42 chapters, some of them very short, and an epilogue. The prologue and epilogue clarify the relationship to reality.
At the beginning of the book there is a quote by Saul Bellow from the novel Herzog and a map with Yemen and Djibouti .
At the end there is a thank you, information about the author and references to the Mokha Foundation and the writing and support center 826 Valencia in the Tenderloin.
reception
Elisa von Hof describes the novel on Spiegel Online as “... a mix of portrait, non-fiction and combat pamphlet for humanistic entrepreneurship.” Mokhtar “... has no perspective, just debts. However, the more he learns about the homeland of his parents and grandparents and about the Yemeni coffee culture, which has been forgotten, the more it electrifies him. That is exactly what makes the story so worth reading. "
Parul Sehgal describes the novel in the New York Times as part of a wave of stories about the "good Muslim, funny and cuddly - almost aggressively harmless - and most of all, never pious." The story is mainly about the American dream of still alive but very threatened.
expenditure
- Dave Eggers: The Monk of Mocha: Novel . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-462-04878-0 (379 pages, American English: The Monk of Mokha . New York 2018. Translated by Ulrike Wasel and Klaus Timmermann).
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Monk of Mokha By Dave Eggers knopfdoubleday.com , accessed January 15, 2020
- ↑ Tim Adams: The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers review - smell the coffee In: theguardian.com , January 22, 2018, accessed January 13, 2020
- ↑ Team - Port of Mokha. In: portofmokha.com. Retrieved January 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Eggers: The Monk of Mocha, p. 15
- ↑ Elisa von Hof: About the love of coffee amid the bombs. In: Spiegel Online. SPIEGEL ONLINE, October 22, 2018, accessed on January 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Parul Sehgal: 'The Monk of Mokha' is Dave Eggers's Latest PG-13 Story About the American Dream In: nytimes.com , January 23, 2018, accessed January 13, 2020