Mokhtar Alkhanshali

Mokhtar Alkhanshali is the central figure of the book. He is an American citizen of Yemeni descent. As a child, he and his family lived in an impoverished neighborhood in San Francisco. As a boy, Mokhtar was generally unruly, so his parents sent him to live for a year in Yemen with his grandparents. Mokhtar came to admire Yemen, as well as his grandfather’s strong work ethic. After returning to the United States, Mokhtar worked as a salesperson through high school. After graduating high school, he worked as a car salesman but quit after he saw his employer cheat a customer out of money. Mokhtar unfortunately did not have money for college, so he worked various unfulfilling jobs. One day, he took an interest in the fact that coffee brewing originated in Yemen. Because Yemen’s coffee industry had deeply deteriorated over the past decades...