Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia

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. Two decades later, they both die on the same day in a thatch hut by a remote canyon, leaving behind a teenage daughter, Auralice, who is adopted by John's family in New York City. Many years later, Auralice returns to Auroville, now married to Akash Kapur, himself a child of the community. As they settle in with their two sons, they are forced to confront the mystery of Auralice's tragic past. Slowly, they come to understand how the deaths of John and Diane intersected with the collective history of their town, and with the alluring-yet always dangerous-search for Utopia. Richly atmospheric and filled with remarkable characters, spread across time and continents, Better to Have Gone is a heartbreaking, unforgettable tale. Book jacket.