More than anything else this book is the story of a love affair-in this case the beloved is a city. Rafael Alvarez has no illusions about his city, he loves Baltimore despite its flaws, the violence, corruption and the pain. He so deeply appreciates and articulates its unique if heartbreaking beauty amidst the ruins of a prosperous and glamorous past as well as its vitality, resilience, poignant sense of dignity and community. Reading Alvarez's love story, I too began to see the city in a different light, wanting to know it better, even to live it", Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran"--