Lieke Marsman, a former Dutch poet laureate, published a memoir titled "On Another Planet They Can Save Me" that explores how terminal illness dismantled her rational worldview. The book was released four months after her death.
Marsman writes that rationality crumbles when facing imminent death. She traces how her assumptions about God, belief systems and even extraterrestrial life shifted as she confronted intolerable suffering. The Guardian's review describes the work as a "brilliant, playful, layered and humane plea for openness and hope" in the face of mortality.
The memoir draws on research about how extreme circumstances reshape belief. The review cites a 2019 survey by Joseph Henrich and colleagues of nearly 2,000 people across three post-conflict societies. Uganda, Sierra Leone and Tajikistan residents who had experienced conflict showed increased participation in Christian and Muslim rituals and groups. The research suggests atheism may prove as fragile as faith when survival is threatened.
Marsman's reflections are described as both agonising and life-affirming. The book functions as part confession, part artistic work, charting her gradual dissolution of rational certainty across multiple domains of belief and understanding.