Demian

A powerful story of spiritual enlightenment and self-discovery, from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Siddhartha and Narcissus and Goldmund __________ 'Hesse is not a traditional teller of tales but a novelist of ideas and a moralist of a high order...The autobiographical undercurrent gives Demian an Existentialist intensity and a depth of understanding that are rare in contemporary fiction' Saturday Review 'Beautifully written. It has a seriousness as compelling as that of The Waste Land' Observer 'Rich and strange' New York Review of Books _________ Emil Sinclair is tormented by a constant battle between light and dark, purity and corruption, ignorance and knowledge. As a restless young man, he struggles to locate a path towards acceptance and serenity. Only under the friendship and guidance of the charismatic, otherworldly Max Demian does he discover an alternative way to think, and to live. Demian transforms a young man's coming-of-age story into a profoundly moving narrative of internal conflict and self-realization.

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) was born in Württemberg, Germany. He resented his pious and repressive upbringing, and was determined to be 'a writer or nothing else'. His writing was greatly influenced by his travels to Asia and through his friendship with psychoanalyst Carl Jung. In 1946 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Glass Bead Game.