Library Journal
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Dion Graham has narrated ten-which is almost all-of McSweeney's founding publisher and literary powerhouse 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.-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

For a son of Yemeni immigrants, the American dream takes the form of reawakening his ancestral homeland to its coffee legacy, the foundation for the industry he hopes to build.In his latest book, acclaimed novelist and McSweeney's founder Eggers (Heroes of the Frontier, 2016, etc.) offers an appealing hybrid: a biography of a charming, industrious Muslim man who has more ambition than direction; a capsule history of coffee and its origins, growth, and development as a mass commodity and then as a niche product; the story of Blue Bottle, the elite coffee chain in San Francisco that some suspect (and some fear) could turn into the next Starbucks; an adventure story of civil war in a foreign country; and a most improbable and uplifting success story. The protagonist, Mokhtar Alkhanshali, not only made it back from Yemen after the U.S. Embassy had closed, leaving remaining American citizens to their own devices, but he was followed by a boatload of some of the richest, best coffee the world has known, "the most expensive coffee Blue Bottle has ever sold$16 a cup." One delicious irony is that neither the author nor his subject had been much interested in coffee exotica, with the former initially dismissing anyone "who waited in line for certain coffees made certain ways[as] pretentious and a fool," while the latter had only had a couple dozen cups of coffee in his life before he became a grader of beans and then an importer. But this book is about much more than coffee or Muslim immigrants or the conflicts in Yemenit is about the undeniable value of "U.S. citizens who maintain strong ties to the countries of their ancestors and who, through entrepreneurial zeal and dogged labor, create indispensable bridges between the developed and developing worlds, between nations that produce and those that consume."Eggers gives his hero a lot of thematic baggage to carry, but it is hard to resist the derring-do of the Horatio Alger of Yemenite coffee. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* Journalism is integral to Eggers' (Heroes of the Frontier, 2016) many-faceted, socially responsible literary life, and his nonfiction forte is telling the story of compelling individuals who have faced unfathomable adversity, as in Zeitoun (2009), the story of a Syrian American in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Here Eggers portrays Yemeni American Mokhtar Alkhanshali, who, after an unruly childhood in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood, a transformative stay in Yemen with his grandfather, and success as a car salesman, finally finds his calling, which proves to be quixotic and dangerous: he commits himself to restoring Yemen's long-forgotten standing as the world's first and best coffee producer. Eggers crisply recounts coffee's delectably roguish history, into which Mokhtar's Sisyphean struggles fit perfectly. Just as fast-talking, improvisational, kind, and monomaniacal Mokhtar attempts, against epic odds, to rekindle the lost art of quality coffee cultivation in Yemen, the country descends into a civil war made worse by al-Qaeda, Saudi bombings, and U.S. drone attacks. He repeatedly ends up in terrifying and dire situations, relying on his wits and bravado to save him and his companions. Readers will never take coffee for granted or overlook the struggles of Yemen after ingesting Egger's phenomenally well-written, juggernaut of a tale of an intrepid and irresistible entrepreneur on a complex and meaningful mission. This highly caffeinated adventure story is ready-made for the big screen. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Eggers, gifted and giving, will tour and make all kinds of media appearances with Alkhanshali, guaranteeing elevated interest in this broadly appealing true story.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2017 Booklist

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Eggers (Heroes of the Frontier) tells the exciting true story of a Yemeni-American man's attempts to promote his ancestral country's heritage, giving both a timely gloss on the traditional American dream and a window into the nightmare of contemporary political instability. The book first finds Mokhtar Alkhanshali as an ambitious but unfocused 25-year-old who has held a series of odd jobs in the Bay Area-including as a car salesman and doorman. He finds unexpected direction in 2013, when he learns that coffee originated 500-years earlier in his family's native country, under the oversight of the titular Sufi holy man. This revelation sends him on an entrepreneurial quest to revitalize the long-dormant Yemeni coffee industry. Alkhanshali's education in the coffee business provides a fascinating glimpse at how coffee is grown and processed today, but his path takes a startling turn in 2015 when Alkhanshali visits Yemen to make final importing arrangements just as the country collapses into civil war. The narrative turns into an increasingly surreal account of Alkhanshali's efforts to elude imprisonment and even death in order to get the coffee-bean samples he has secured back to America. Eggers's book works as both a heartwarming success story with a winning central character and an account of real-life adventures that read with the vividness of fiction. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Actor Graham proves he's a natural storyteller in this excellent reading of Eggers's account of the life of an ill-educated 25-year-old Yemeni-American raised in poverty in San Francisco. After discovering that coffee originated in Yemen, Mokha Alkhanshali creates for himself a mission: to restore Yemeni coffee to its original quality and fame. In doing so, he develops an encyclopedic understanding of the complicated processes of growing, harvesting, and transporting coffee beans, and learns how to judge their quality. Mokha's entrepreneurial quest takes him to Yemen to make final importing arrangements just as the country falls into civil war and international crisis. Graham's ever-changing intonation, well-handled accents, and nuanced characterizations keep listeners riveted through harrowing acts of bravery, heartrending setbacks, and hair-raising events. A Knopf hardcover. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.