Geography of Heaven: Travels to the Hereafter

“When my wife Katrin died aged 55, I couldn’t imagine life without her. So I set out to find where she had gone. Over five years I searched for her, 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. In Delhi, I was told ‘the universe will keep sending you loving souls to guide you on this journey’ and it did, opening doors, revealing wonders beyond my imagination, until – in five truly extraordinary moments – Katrin was beside me.”

Geography of Heaven: Travels to the Hereafter is the story of that journey, of moments of astonishment and awe, of steps taken with hope and love. It describes MacLean’s physical and emotional journey in countries including India and Bhutan, as well as his writings on faith and afterlife beliefs in China and Japan.  

Rory MacLean is the author of more than a dozen books including the UK best sellers Stalin’s Nose and Under the Dragon. His Berlin: Imagine a City was chosen by the Washington Post as a Book of the Year, its reviewer calling it “the most extraordinary work of history I’ve ever read”. According to the late John Fowles, MacLean’s books – which have been translated into a dozen languages – are among works that “marvellously explain why literature still lives”. Rory is the founder of Sherborne Travel Writing Festival and has won awards from the Canada Council and the Arts Council of England as well as a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship.

Image by Susanne Ollmann.