Siddhartha is among the great philosophical books. Profoundly insightful, it is also a beautifully written story that begins as Siddhartha, child of the Indian Brahman, leaves his family and starts a lifelong trip towards Enlightenment. On the way he encounters the entire selection of individual experience and feelings: he lives with ascetics, meets Gotama the Buddha, discovers the artwork of love from Kamala the courtesan, and it is transformed by the simple philosophy of the ferryman Vasudeva whose wisdom comes not from learned teachings but from observing the River. Herman Hesse (1877-1962) was a German-Swiss novelist, poet, and painter. He was awarded the Nobel Award in Books in 1946.