Atlas of Lost Paradises

27 of the world's greatest attempts at re-creating or reimagining paradise on earth (Book 3 of the bestselling Atlas series) "Paradises got off to a bad start early on. The one the Bible had arranged had to rapidly close its pearly gates when its first two occupants, Adam and Eve, had misbehaved." Humankind knows too well that the Garden of Eden will not reopen its gates, but people are always on the lookout for its mirror image, its fleeting precursor. They have devoted many sleepless nights to fashioning their own Elysian Plains and have assembled a collection of El Dorados: ideal cities, castles where freedom reigns, islands without sin or sorrow, communities governed by love and nudity, flower and bird gardens, phalansteries and homes following the motto “Do as you please.” There are only few success stories. Yet, despite failing to build paradises endowed with an eternal life expectancy, civilizations have sometimes succeeded in manufacturing small plots of Eden, a Mount