Resoundingly simple and unashamed in the truths it proclaims. Although Hesse finishes by writing that wisdom can never be conveyed through words, reading Siddhartha it certainly doesn’t feel so. The novel resonates with lessons a young person knows he needs to hear, and lessons they may find harder to accept. The pace of the book is mesmerising. Years float by and you are filled with a strange contentedness at the countless events that are ignored between moments of clarity. Perhaps Hesse’s best work, here seems to be the sum of his wisdom and understanding what it means to gain satisfaction and peace in life.