Geography of Heaven

Travels to the Hereafter

Rory MacLean (author)

Five years ago Rory MacLean set out on a path with no idea of where it would lead, of how long it would take or that his life would change forever. When his wife died, he couldn't imagine living without her. So he set out to find where she had gone.

Over the years he searched, tracing across history and around the globe mankind's ideas of the afterlife, seeking out places where the veil is thin. Places where our mortal world touched the divine. He spent a night on Jacob's Rock where the Biblical patriarch had seen a ladder to heaven. In Kerala, he watched gods walk on fire. On the Great Plains, he sundanced with the Lakota. At Jerusalem's Temple Mount, he laid his hand on the stepping stone to another world. In Delhi, he was told 'the universe will keep sending you loving souls to guide you on this journey' and it did, opening doors, revealing wonders beyond his imagination, until - in five truly inexplicable moments - his wife was beside him.

Geography of Heaven: Travels to the Hereafter is the story of that extraordinary journey, of moments of astonishment and awe, of steps taken with hope and love. Hope 'that leads to blissful end' wrote Dante. Hope that 'is of the joy to come' as the light from many a star. At the same time, his journey through grief is explained by the latest neuroscientific research. The result is a life-enhancing travel book like no other that leads to the realisation that none of us are created for naught.

Rory MacLean FRSL is a British-Canadian historian and travel writer who lives and works in Berlin and the United Kingdom. Among his best known works are Stalin's Nose (1992), a travelogue through eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall; Magic Bus (2006), a history of the Asia Overland hippie trail.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abacus
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ Aug. 2026
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
• ISBN : ‎ 9780349148199