It is a fantastic book, it was my very first encounter with Hesse. It's a great book to start with if you are planning to read any other Hesse's books. I read the spanish version for the first time when I was 17, and was going through difficult situations... It wasn't very useful, I must say, because it questioned me a lot about the path I was taking in my life at that very moment, and also it opened several perspectives that I haven't yet taken into account.