Mokhtar Alkhanshali and Dave Eggers: The Monk of Mokha

Bookworm

KCRW

Arts

4.5 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2018

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For The Monk of Mokha, Dave Eggers writes the story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali bridging the country of his ancestors with the country where he lives. This is a conversation about the fate of immigrant life in America.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.
0:05.0	Boots!
0:10.0	Where would we be without books?
0:13.0	Where would we be without good?
0:15.0	No, Timberd.
0:17.0	It's a rhetorical question, sir.
0:20.0	But where would we be without books?
0:23.9	From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.
0:30.4	What a joy.
0:32.5	I've got two people here.
0:34.9	One is Dave Eggers, and the other is the man about whom he's written his new book,
0:43.0	the monk of Moka. The monk of Moka might as well be Mokhtar Alkan Shali and Moktar has told stories to Dave Eggers.
1:00.2	Dave Eggers has an ear that is triggered by a good story.
1:05.7	He knows about the world that most people don't know, and so he is obligated to tell stories
1:16.8	about that world in addition to his own stories. These are essentially an alteration
1:24.2	between fiction and nonfiction, and the monk of Mokka is a nonfiction book about a young Yemeni American who learns that Yemen
1:40.3	is the place 500 years ago where coffee originates.
1:47.3	Yes?
1:48.2	Well, there is a difference of opinion.
1:52.2	And whether it's Yemen or Ethiopia, so depending on which side of the Red Sea you're on,
1:58.6	you'll have a different answer.
2:00.9	But I think I'm the only Yemeni who thinks the plant starts in Ethiopia.
	...

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