The Greek capital in the 1960s as seen by an expectant American

I was personally swept away by how that beautiful, bright and charismatic American saw Athens back in 1964, when she had her son in downtown Exarchia. While it reads like a fairy tale, there is nothing fictional about the story told by Frances Karlen Santamaria (1937-2013) in "A Room in Athens: A Memoir," a book that is both old and new at the same time, and has been published in its English original on the initiative of her son, writer and journalist Josh Karlen.

Josh was still a baby when the family left for New York and although he never came back to Greece again he did grow up hearing the slightly exotic, paradoxical and charming story surrounding his birth. "A Room in Athens" is basically his mother's journal, but it is also so much more than a simple record of events; it is a tale of awakening and fresh comprehension.

It could be a tale of labor, of the natural...