“The Monk of Mokha” (Alfred A. Knopf), by Dave EggersAs legend has it, coffee was born in Yemen, when a Sufi brewed the beverage to fuel his late-night devotions. Roughly 700 years later, a Yemeni-American set out to revive the country’s languished and forgotten role in the world’s coffee trade. If Alkhanshali’s mission sounds ambitious, it becomes even more so with Yemen’s instability following the Arab Spring and the rise of Houthi rebels. “Stranger still,” Eggers writes, “the (leader) agreed.”Some of these incidents, and perhaps the sheer number of them, border on the fantastical, and a reader can’t help wonder if it all happened as described. Still, they’re side stories to the indisputably remarkable and true tale of how Yemeni coffee got its second act on the world stage.

Source: National Post January 29, 2018 14:15 UTC