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.

"· Hesse's style is individual and his view of the world strikingly original" - Sunday Telegraph

"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

"Hermann Hesse is the poet of the interior journey" - Timothy Leary