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The Opposite of a Person

By Lieke Marsman
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3.72 goodreads logo

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Check link for latest rating. ( 2,506 ratings, 337 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Opposite of a Person by Lieke Marsman follows a young climate change researcher who travels to the Italian Alps. As she navigates her personal life and growing concerns about the environment, the narrative explores themes of identity, relationships, and the planet's fragility, intertwining personal and global anxieties in a thought-provoking manner.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate deeply introspective and poetic explorations of identity and climate change, intertwined with the protagonist's personal journey. It artfully combines science, philosophy, and emotion, offering a reflective narrative on personal and global change.

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If people were evil, and I wished to be good, then I had tomake sure that I was the opposite of a person.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

When Ida, a Dutch climatologist, accepts an internship at a climate research institute in the Italian Alps, it means leaving her girlfriend Robin behind in Amsterdam. As she and her new colleagues prepare to demolish a decommissioned hydropower dam, Ida finds herself grappling with love, loneliness, and her place in a society unwilling to confront global warming.

An unflinchingly honest narrative of vulnerability, longing, and introspection is disrupted by essays and poems, creating an incisive, witty, and devastatingly smart portrait of how we live now. Distilling all our contemporary fears, Marsman examines what we must face head-on if we - individuals, humanity, the world - are to survive. And she asks us: if we are to survive, what is our impetus? For what are we fighting?

Startlingly unique, timely, and ultimately deeply moving, The Opposite of a Person is a dazzling, cerebral tour-de-force, a poignant love story, and an urgent, unforgettable call to arms.

Stunning ... an existentialist, essential story about the world we live in. - Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, International Booker Prize-winning author of The Discomfort of Evening

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The Opposite of a Person by Lieke Marsman has garnered attention for its blend of personal reflection and environmental themes. The book is praised for its poetic prose and the way it tackles complex emotions while exploring philosophical questions. Some reviews highlight the strong character development and the insightful way the narrative weaves personal and global issues, drawing readers into its introspective journey.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781914198106

Publisher: Daunt Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 28 April 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Daunt Books

Contributors:

  • Translated by Sophie Collins

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Weight: 250g

Pages: 204

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Lieke Marsman Literary Fiction

About the Author

Lieke Marsman is a Dutch writer and the current Poet Laureate of the Netherlands. Marsman is considered one of the greatest new voices in Dutch literature. She published her first poetry volume Things That I Tell Myself at twenty years old, and promptly won three poetry prizes. In 2018 Lieke was diagnosed with bone cancer. The months following the diagnosis she wrote The Following Scan Will Last Five Minutes, which was translated into English by Sophie Collins and published by Liverpool Press. The Opposite of a Person, was longlisted for the ECI Literature Prize. Lieke currently lives in Amsterdam.

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