LEADER 00000nam  2200409 i 4500 
001    sky304318679 
003    SKY 
005    20211201102303.0 
008    210811s2021    nyua   e b    000 0deng d 
015    GBC168445|2bnb 
020    9781501132513 
020    1501132512 
040    BKCT|beng|erda|cBKCT|dSKYRV|dUtOrBLW 
043    a-ii--- 
082 04 954/.820922|223 
092    954.820922|bKAP 
100 1  Kapur, Akash,|eauthor. 
245 10 Better to have gone :|blove, death, and the quest for 
       utopia in Auroville /|cAkash Kapur. 
250    First Scribner hardcover edition. 
264  1 New York :|bScribner,|c2021 
264  4 |c©2021 
300    xiv, 344 pages :|billustrations (black and white) ;|c24 cm
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
336    still image|bsti|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
504    Includes bibliographical references. 
505 00 |tPrologue: unfinished business --|tDreamers --|tThe 
       founders --|tForecomers --|tA livnig laboratory --
       |tArchitects of immortality --|tAurolouis's well --|tA 
       family affair --|tThe sacrifice --|tA golden rope --
       |tEmissaries --|tA defensive crouch --|tRavena --|tThe 
       nature of wants --|tDatura --|tFeckless --|tThe question 
       of blame --|tEpilogue: birthdays. 
520    "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 reestablish 
       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 underexplored 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." --|cBook jacket. 
600 10 Maes, Diane. 
600 10 Walker, John. 
650  0 Utopias|zIndia. 
651  0 Auroville (India)|xHistory. 
655  7 Biographies.|2lcgft 
655  7 Creative nonfiction.|2lcgft