Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse’s Siddartha tells the story of a young man’s search for spiritual enlightenment.  In it, Siddartha casts off his wealthy existence for a life of contemplation and ascetism after meeting with the Buddha. Later, restless, he abandons this too in favour of the temptations of life with a beautiful courtesan. Ultimately it will be as a simple ferryman that he finds true enlightenment. This is another another deceptively simple book that, like The Alchemist, draws from Eastern and Western philosophical traditions to create a story that is at once timeless and yet distilled from the period in which it was written. The Penguin Modern Classics edition features a foreword by Coelho himself.

From our article Books like The Alchemist

“There’s the ideas of mathematics, of philosophy, of music all brought together in this game, the glass bead game…When I read that book I thought, ‘Yes, this is the game I want to play.’ That’s what I try to do in the work that I do, to combine my love of music, to explain why music and mathematics have these common themes, to bring mathematics alive through the theatre, write the books I do. That’s my ultimate aim, to become a master of the glass bead game. It’s the book I took on my desert island when I was asked to do Desert Island Discs. I just think it is a magical book.” Read more...

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