The Man Who Fell To Earth

The Man Who Fell To Earth is a novel by Walter Tevis ("The Hustler", "The Queen's Gambit") about an extraterrestrial who lands on earth.

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers

The hero rises to incredible wealth as the head of a technology-based conglomerate. However, he ultimately fails in his mission to save his dying planet and ends up trapped on earth, broken, lonely and embittered.

The novel served as the basis for a well-regarded 1976 Nicolas Roeg film and a less-successful 1987 television adaptation. The original film starred David Bowie, Rip Torn, Candy Clark and Buck Henry. Images from the film appear on the covers of the Bowie albums "Station to Station" and "Low", which are said to contain fragments of the soundtrack music he wrote for the film, but which was not used.