31 May / The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers [in Library Journal]
Dion Graham has narrated 10 – which is almost all – of McSweeney’s founding publisher and literary powerhouse Dave Eggers’s books. Graham showcases his staggering genius for aural incarnations across gender, ethnicity, culture, age – whatever details Eggers writes, Graham inspiringly brings to listeners’ ears.
Their latest collaboration embodies Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Yemeni American entrepreneur who’s brought the $16 cup of coffee to discerning American palates. His journey out of San Francisco’s Tenderloin – via folding shirts at Banana Republic, selling shoes at Macy’s, opening apartment doors – led him to his ancestral homeland, where drinking coffee began 500 years ago. Surviving malaria, gallstones, gastrointestinal attacks, not to mention kidnapping and civil war, Mokhtar gets the Eggers and Graham treatment.
Verdict: Given Eggers’s literati status, ardent groupies will request all available formats
Review: “Audio,” Library Journal, May 15, 2018
Readers: Adult
Published: 2018