{"product_id":"heaven-is-a-place-on-earth-searching-for-an-american-utopia-9781640093577","title":"Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Searching for an American Utopia","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn exploration of American ideas of utopia through the lens of one millennial's quest to live a more communal life under late-stage capitalism\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTold in a series of essays that balance memoir with fieldwork, \u003ci\u003eHeaven Is a Place on Earth\u003c\/i\u003e is an idiosyncratic study of American utopian experiments--from the Shakers to the radical faerie communes of Short Mountain to the Bronx rebuilding movement--through the lens of one woman's quest to create a more communal life in a time of unending economic and social precarity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Adrian Shirk's father-in-law has a stroke and loses his ability to speak and walk, she and her husband--both adjuncts in their midtwenties--become his primary caretakers. The stress of these new responsibilities, coupled with navigating America's broken health-care system and ordinary twenty-first-century financial insecurity, propels Shirk into an odyssey through the history and present of American utopian experiments in the hope that they might offer a way forward. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAlong the way, Shirk seeks solace in her own community of friends, artists, and theologians. They try to imagine a different kind of life, examining what might be replicable within the histories of utopia-making, and what might be doomed. Rather than \"no place,\" Shirk reframes utopia as something that, according to the laws of capital and conquest, shouldn't be able to exist--but does anyway, if only for a moment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eADRIAN SHIRK\u003c\/b\u003e is an essayist and memoirist. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eAnd Your Daughters Shall Prophesy\u003c\/i\u003e, named an NPR Best Book of 2017. Shirk was raised in Portland, Oregon, and has since lived in New York and Wyoming. She is a frequent contributor to \u003ci\u003eCatapult\u003c\/i\u003e, and her essays have appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAtlas Obscura\u003c\/i\u003e, among other publications. Currently, she teaches in Pratt Institute's BFA creative writing program and lives at the Mutual Aid Society in the Catskill Mountains.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Counterpoint LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50614091677970,"sku":"9781640093577","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3d4a992e-ab57-4bc3-8706-ce7f5e4602f2.jpg?v=1732427765","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/heaven-is-a-place-on-earth-searching-for-an-american-utopia-9781640093577","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}