Here the spirituality of the East and the West have met in a novel that enfigures deep human wisdom with a rich and colorful imagination. Written in a prose of almost biblical simplicity and beauty it is the story of a soul s long quest in search of he ultimate answer to the enigma of man s role on this earth. As a youth the young Indian Siddhartha meets the Buddha but cannot be content with a disciple s role: he must work out his own destiny and solve his own doubt--a tortuous road that carries him through the sensuality of a love affair with the beautiful courtesan Kamala the temptation of success and riches the heartache of struggle with his own son to final renunciation and self-knowledge. The name Siddhartha is one often given to the Buddha himself--perhaps a clue to Hesse s aims in contrasting the traditional legendary figure with his own conception as a European (Hesse was Swiss) of a spiritual explorer.