When everything here feels unexpectedly hopeless, I’d like to think: On another planet they can save me.

A brilliant, life-affirming and expansive meditation on mortality and the courage to imagine the unknown.

Faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis, poet Lieke Marsman embarks on an intellectual expedition to challenge the limits of the rational, secular worldview she once trusted, in an urgent quest for hope. In essays, poems and diary entries, she traves deep both into – and wildly beyond – herself. From ancient Greek myths to quantum mechanics, from UFOs to Wittgenstein, she traverses across the ages and disciplines to chart an unflinching, deeply philosophical journey in search of meaning in a world that offers none.

On Another Planet They Can Save Me is a defiant celebration of the human spirit’s refusal to surrender to despair – and a rallying cry for the power of wonder, even in the face of death.

‘A brilliant shock of a book: poetical, philosophical and so fervently on the side of flux, nuance, imagination and delight. A call to arms against the destroyer death and death’s angel, despair. Sophie Collins has given us a tender and judicious translation of Lieke Marsman’s literary act of resistance and hope.’ Sasha Dugdale

‘Writing can be a lonely exercise, and dying even more so. Lieke Marsman has faced both, head-on, using each experience to explore the other. This book is in an act of huge generosity, not only in sharing her vulnerability, but also towards herself – modelling how it’s possible to reflect, wallow and dream in a way that makes life, after all, liveable.’ Adam Zmith

‘A haunting, poetic account of an otherworldly journey through the here and now, shadowed by death.’ VPRO Gids

‘Movingly honest and frequently funny . . . A call to life.’ Harper’s Bazaar

‘Passionately philosophical and literary . . . a fiercely inspiring plea for openness, truly capable of changing the way we think.’ NRC, *****

On Another Planet They Can Save Me

The Opposite of a Person