Preface to “Siddhartha Reborn: A Novel in Search of the Middle Way between Nietzsche and the Buddha”
Here is the preface to my new work of fiction, Siddhartha Reborn: A Novel in Search of the Middle Way between Nietzsche and the Buddha. The book is available online at most of the large distributors, including paperback (here or here) or Kindle.
Preface
For the best part of two decades, I have been reading Nietzsche seriously while only dabbling in Buddhism. Over the last few years, however, I have had both the urge and the opportunity to engage more deeply with Buddhist philosophy and practice, and what I found unsettled much of my earlier confidence in Nietzsche’s positions. At the same time, Nietzsche seemed to raise penetrating questions about Buddhism that I could not simply dismiss.
I found myself wanting to embrace both traditions, despite tensions that resisted any easy reconciliation: between denying the self and self-creation; between compassion and power; between the cessation of suffering and the aesthetic affirmation of existence. As I read these traditions, it seemed to me that each could illuminate and enrich the other, and yet there still seemed to be a gap. Could a bridge be built that conjoined the outer edges of these discourses, somehow harmonising the apparent points of difference? If not, was there a middle way between or beyond?
I might have explored these questions in an academic essay or book, and perhaps one day I will. But, in a characteristically Nietzschean spirit, I began to wonder whether the more literary and experimental form of the novel might offer a better mode of expression for examining problems that are not merely intellectual, but existential and spiritual. For the same reasons, the Buddha, who often spoke in verse, might have considered my chosen method entirely appropriate, perhaps even necessary to the task.
In any case, my own grappling with these issues over recent years eventually took the form of a novel. Of course, it should always worry readers when a philosopher sets out to write a novel. The only reason I had the audacity to do so was because I’ve done it before and met with some modest success. My first novel, Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilization, was published in 2013. It sold well enough not to feel like a failure, and the rights were eventually purchased by one of the major global production companies, set to become a multi-series television show. As things turned out, the COVID-19 pandemic put the entire industry on pause, and now it seems the television project is unlikely to proceed. Still, that expression of faith in my first novel gave me the courage to try again – a validation which I really should have found within myself.
May this new journey reward readers as it has rewarded the author. I dedicate this book to my friend Bhikkhu Jinasiri, whose avatar I imagined sitting on my shoulder as I was writing, offering me wise counsel throughout. Nietzsche sat on my other shoulder, imploring me to ignore the monk and instead to think for myself.
This book is the result of that attempted mediation.
S.A.
August 2026
The book is available online at most of the large distributors, including paperback (here or here) or Kindle.
