Thursday 24 November 2011

"The Devil's Cup" by Stewart Lee Allen

An interesting history of coffee is turned into a mesmerising thriller by the adventures of Stewart, following coffee from Ethiopian genesis to the USA. On the way this beatnik turned author travels on a gun-running boat from Djibouti to Yemen while these two countries are at war, negotiates a people-smuggling deal, is conned whilst trying to participate in an international forged art smuggling business, meets low-lifes of all sorts, travels from Italy to Rio, has his passport confiscated and his car searched, interrogates entranced mediums, and drinks every variety of coffee possible from Ethiopian brewed with the leaves to Yemeni, to Turkish, to Viennese, to Parisian, to Italian, to Brazilian, to American.

Unbelievable. Why have I never heard of this book before?

November 2011; 230 pages

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