A man, an island, the universe: When the cosmopolitan Cees Nooteboom is in Menorca - no longer just his summer island - he stands firmly on fertile ground, surrounded by palm trees, stubborn turtles, and his beloved books in the garden studio. However, his gaze extends far beyond the horizon, awake and curious. Nooteboom looks skeptically at a Europe that is on the verge of falling apart; he marvels at the total artwork of David Bowie. Yet, his enthusiasm is directed towards outer space, from his patron saint, the constellation Orion, to the two Voyager spacecraft carrying their greeting messages to alien civilizations, traveling through space for almost 40 years and forgotten by all. Only a handful of aging technicians still know how to operate the outdated software - the retirees of space travel. 533 T.