Travel writer MacLean infiltrated West Bank settlement weeks before 7 October

In 'Geography of Heaven' — reviewed by The Guardian on 4 August 2026 — veteran travel writer Rory MacLean describes infiltrating an Israeli settlement in the West Bank weeks before the 7 October attacks. He was seeking to recreate the biblical conditions under which Jacob dreamed of a ladder to heaven. The book chronicles five years of travel after MacLean's wife Katrin died of cancer.