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'Beautifully written and structured, deeply moving, and realised in
wise, thoughtful, chiselled prose... it is that rarity: a genuine
non-fiction classic' William Dalrymple 'A troubling and moving
account of lives gone wrong in the search for an eastern Utopia'
Damon Galgut, author of the Booker Prize-winning The Promise A
spellbinding story about love, faith, the search for utopia - and
the often devastating cost of idealism. It's the late 1960s, and
two lovers converge on an arid patch of earth in South India. John
Walker is the handsome scion of a powerful East Coast American
family. Diane Maes is a beautiful hippie from Belgium. They have
come to build a new world - Auroville, an international utopian
community for thousands of people. Their faith is strong, the
future bright. So how do John and Diane end up dying two decades
later, on the same day, on a cracked concrete floor in a thatch hut
by a remote canyon? This is the mystery Akash Kapur sets out to
solve in Better to Have Gone, and it carries deep personal
resonance: Diane and John were the parents of Akash's wife,
Auralice. Akash and Auralice grew up in Auroville; like the rest of
their community, they never really understood those deaths. In
2004, Akash and Auralice return to Auroville from New York, where
they have been living with John's family. As they re-establish
themselves, along with their two sons, in the community, they must
confront the ghosts of those distant deaths. Slowly, they come to
understand how the tragic individual fates of John and Diane
intersected with the collective history of their town. Better to
Have Gone is a book about the human cost of our age-old quest for a
more perfect world. It probes the under-explored yet universal idea
of utopia, and it portrays in vivid detail the daily life of one
utopian community. Richly atmospheric and filled with remarkable
characters, spread across time and continents, this is narrative
writing of the highest order - a heartbreaking, unforgettable
story.
'Beautifully written and structured, deeply moving, and realised in
wise, thoughtful, chiselled prose... it is that rarity: a genuine
non-fiction classic' William Dalrymple 'A troubling and moving
account of lives gone wrong in the search for an eastern Utopia'
Damon Galgut, author of the Booker Prize-winning The Promise A
spellbinding story about love, faith, the search for utopia - and
the often devastating cost of idealism. It's the late 1960s, and
two lovers converge on an arid patch of earth in South India. John
Walker is the handsome scion of a powerful East Coast American
family. Diane Maes is a beautiful hippie from Belgium. They have
come to build a new world - Auroville, an international utopian
community for thousands of people. Their faith is strong, the
future bright. So how do John and Diane end up dying two decades
later, on the same day, on a cracked concrete floor in a thatch hut
by a remote canyon? This is the mystery Akash Kapur sets out to
solve in Better to Have Gone, and it carries deep personal
resonance: Diane and John were the parents of Akash's wife,
Auralice. Akash and Auralice grew up in Auroville; like the rest of
their community, they never really understood those deaths. In
2004, Akash and Auralice return to Auroville from New York, where
they have been living with John's family. As they re-establish
themselves, along with their two sons, in the community, they must
confront the ghosts of those distant deaths. Slowly, they come to
understand how the tragic individual fates of John and Diane
intersected with the collective history of their town. Better to
Have Gone is a book about the human cost of our age-old quest for a
more perfect world. It probes the under-explored yet universal idea
of utopia, and it portrays in vivid detail the daily life of one
utopian community. Richly atmospheric and filled with remarkable
characters, spread across time and continents, this is narrative
writing of the highest order - a heartbreaking, unforgettable
story.
A "New Republic" Editors' and Writers' Pick 2012A "New Yorker"
Contributors' Pick 2012
A "Newsweek ""Must Read on Modern India"
"For people who savored Katherine Boo's "Behind the Beautiful
Forevers.""--Evan Osnos, newyorker.com
A portrait of the incredible change and economic development of
modern India, and of social and national transformation there told
through individual lives
Raised in India, and educated in the U.S., Akash Kapur returned to
India in 2003 to raise a family. What he found was an ancient
country in transition. In search of the life that he and his wife
want to lead, he meets an array of Indians who teach him much about
the realities of this changed country: an old landowner sees his
rural village destroyed by real estate developments, and crime and
corruption breaking down the feudal authority; a 21-year-old single
woman and a 35-year-old divorcee exploring the new cultural
allowances for women; and a young gay man coming to terms with his
sexual identity - something never allowed him a generation
ago.
As Akash and his wife struggle to find the right balance between
growth and modernity and the simplicity and purity they had known
from the Indian countryside a decade ago, they ultimately find a
country that "has begun to dream." But also one that may be moving
away too quickly from the valuable ways in which it is different.
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