"George Sarrinikolaou, a native Athenian who emigrated from Greece to America, strips Athens of its stereotypes to reveal a city straining under the passions and burdens of early-twenty-first-century life." "Modern Athens exists in the shadow of images from its ancient past: cradle of civilization, birthplace of democracy, inspiration for the Olympic Games. But as the city welcomes the 2004 Summer Olympics, it faces challenges quite unlike those depicted in mythology and epic poetry. As Sarrinikolaou explores Athens on foot, striving to face the settings of his childhood head-on, he encounters people who reveal the demythologized city: newly wealthy Greeks at a Las Vegas-style nightclub; Gypsies building a middle-class house amid their squalid encampment; Kurdish and Eastern European immigrants seeking day labor in Omonia Square; aged Athenians wistfully recalling the past as their neighborhood crumbles around them. In their life stories, Sarrinikolaou sees the economic, social, and historical forces that are shaping Athens today." "This is the Athens that even many Athenians see only in passing, and in Facing Athens Sarrinikolaou gives us a rare and vivid glimpse of one of the world's great cities."--BOOK JACKET.