»Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne«

Hermann Hesse is the most widely read author of the German language worldwide. Each generation discovers him anew, and his readers are always young. Alois Prinz narrates Hesse's life, from his childhood in the Swabian town of Calw, through the crises of growing up, to his engagement with the world and his retreat to the Ticino village of Montagnola, where Hesse starts his life anew. However, Alois Prinz also reveals the lesser-known Hesse, the "most respectable rebel of German literature," as Marcel Reich-Ranicki called him. He was a rebel, but why respectable? Did Hesse actually live by the message conveyed in his books? And why did he warn his readers against taking him as a role model? Alois Prinz tells his life story in an engaging and knowledgeable manner, yet with such restraint that readers can find the answers to these questions themselves.