Siddhartha is one of the great philosophical novels. Profoundly insightful, additionally it is a beautifully created story that begins as Siddhartha, son of an Indian Brahman, leaves his family members and starts a lifelong trip towards Enlightenment. On the way he faces the entire range of individual experience and feelings: he lives with ascetics, meets Gotama the Buddha, discovers the artwork of love from Kamala the courtesan, and is transformed by the easy philosophy of the ferryman Vasudeva whose intelligence comes not from learned teachings but from observing the River. Herman Hesse (1877-1962) was a German-Swiss novelist, poet, and painter. He was granted the Nobel Reward in Literature in 1946.