“An astonishing book. It tells of the determination of love, its capacity to transcend and earth, its refusal to stop before the membrane between the lovers is breached and truth – real, felt, undeniable, unmanufactured truth – emerges.” Claire Gilbert
“an epic of travel and a rich testament to an enduring love.” Colin Thubron
“A magnificent, heartfelt love story and a quest both ancient and entirely original.” Jay Griffiths
After my wife Katrin died, I couldn’t imagine life without her. So I set out to find where she had gone. I searched for five years, 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. I spent a night on Jacob’s Rock where the Biblical patriarch had seen a ladder to heaven. In Kerala, I watched gods walk on fire. On the Great Plains, I danced with the Lakota. At Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, I lay my hand on the stepping stone to another world. 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. Hope “that leads to blissful end” wrote Dante. Hope that “is of the joy to come” as the light from many a star. Hope that can be found in all the world and love that calls to our souls, love that can but lead to truth. Five years ago I would never have believed that this inexplicable enterprise could lead me out of the brokenhearted darkness to an understanding that none of us are created for naught. We are links in a golden chain, bound by connections, performing acts of love the like of which touch every life. We all are gifted brief, scattered moments of shimmering awareness that alight us in the presence of something overwhelming, something mysterious, something eternal.
To be published by Little, Brown in August 2026.
