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On Another Planet They Can Save Me

By Lieke Marsman
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Brief Description
When everything here feels unexpectedly hopeless, I'd like to think: On another planet they can save me. 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... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
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Releases 1st December 2026 (Approx. Date) Pre-order  "On Another Planet They Can Save Me" now to secure your copy from our first shipment

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

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

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 travels 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.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781917092760

Publisher: Daunt Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 10 September 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Daunt Originals

Contributors:

  • Translated by Sophie Collins

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 0g

Pages: 192

Collections

Biography & Memoir Coming Soon in Fiction General Fiction Lieke Marsman Musicians, Movie Stars & Creative Biographies Non-Fiction Non-Fiction Pre-Orders Philosophy & Psychology Philosophy & Stoicism Pre-order Biographies Pre-order Books Pre-orders Pre-orders by Release Date

About the Author

Lieke Marsman was a writer and former Poet Laureate of the Netherlands. Her debut poetry collection, Things That I Tell Myself, was published when she was only twenty, and was awarded three major poetry prizes. Her first novel, The Opposite of a Person, was published in English in 2022 by Daunt Books. On Another Planet They Can Save Me was published in the Netherlands in 2025 and became an instant bestseller. Lieke Marsman lived and worked in Amsterdam. Marsman died of cancer on 3 June 2026, at the age of 35.


Sophie Collins grew up in Bergen, North Holland. Her own titles include Who Is Mary Sue? (Faber, 2018) and small white monkeys (Book Works, 2017), while she is also the translator, from the Dutch, of works including Lieke Marsman's The Opposite of a Person, for which she won the TA First Translation Prize.

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