Gratuit avec l’offre d'essai
Écouter avec l’offre
-
Better to Have Gone
- Love, Death and the Quest for Utopia in Auroville
- Lu par : Vikas Adam
- Durée : 12 h et 38 min
Impossible d'ajouter des articles
Échec de l’élimination de la liste d'envies.
Impossible de suivre le podcast
Impossible de ne plus suivre le podcast
2,95 €/mois pendant 3 mois
Acheter pour 14,09 €
Aucun moyen de paiement n'est renseigné par défaut.
Désolés ! Le mode de paiement sélectionné n'est pas autorisé pour cette vente.
Vous êtes membre Amazon Prime ?
Bénéficiez automatiquement de 2 livres audio offerts.Bonne écoute !
Description
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.
Commentaires
"A forensic reconstruction of two deaths set against the background of a tropical utopia. It is beautifully written and structured, deeply moving, and realised in wise, thoughtful, chiselled prose. It tells an extraordinary tale of a paradise lost, and of the dangers of utopian naivety: what happens when dreams collide with harsh reality. Like In Cold Blood, it is that rarity: a genuine non-fiction classic." (William Dalrymple, author of The Anarchy)
"Using the framework of a personal historical quest, Akash Kapur gives us a gripping morality tale, phosphorescent and unsettling, of the cruelty that accompanies utopia." (Jeet Thayil, Booker-shortlisted author of Narcopolis)
"Spellbinding and otherworldly, Better to Have Gone is an exquisite literary achievement. With graceful, luminous prose, Akash Kapur's intimate account of utopian Auroville is entrancing, devastating and unforgettable. Above all, this book is a hauntingly beautiful love story, composed by a writer in full command of his craft." (Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove)
Autres livres audio du même :
Ce que les auditeurs disent de Better to Have Gone
Moyenne des évaluations utilisateurs. Seuls les utilisateurs ayant écouté le titre peuvent laisser une évaluation.Commentaires - Veuillez sélectionner les onglets ci-dessous pour changer la provenance des commentaires.
-
Global
-
Interprétation
-
Histoire
- Michel
- 07/08/2023
Bouleversant, beau et réaliste
Un magnifique voyage aux sources d'Auroville, un projet idéaliste toujours en cours de réalisation. Un voyage en compagnie de la Mère, de Satprem, de John, Diane et Auralies, sa fille.
Un livre qui me donne encore l'envie de retourner à Auroville, la cité expérimentale de l'unité humaine.
Une erreur s'est produite. Réessayez dans quelques minutes.
Merci. Votre vote a été pris en compte.
Vous avez donné votre avis sur cette évaluation !