Siddhartha Reborn: A Novel in Search of the Middle Way between Nietzsche and the Buddha
In 2013 I published my first novel, Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilisation (audiobook coming soon!). This year I have been working on my second – something a bit different for me – which I am very happy to say has just been published. It’s called Siddhartha Reborn: A Novel in Search of the Middle Way Between Nietzsche and the Buddha.
As the title suggests, this new work of fiction explores tensions and harmonies between the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and the Buddha. I hope you like it, and if you know people who might be interested in such a book, please share this email with them. Thank you. I’ve posted the blurb below, followed by the preface.
The book is available online at most of the large distributors, including paperback (here or here) or Kindle.
BLURB:
When archaeologists uncover an ancient urn inscribed, “Herein lie the ashes of the Blessed Buddha,” they discover something impossible: preserved genetic material. In secret, scientists clone the Buddha, hoping his return will bring wisdom to a civilisation collapsing into ecological ruin and the Final War.
Raised in a hidden monastery, Siddhartha is trained in every major school of Buddhist philosophy and meditation – but never told who he is. At thirty-five, the age of the historic Buddha’s awakening, his lineage is revealed to the world. Billions look to him for salvation.
Yet Siddhartha does not feel enlightened. He is only a man, burdened by a life written for him before his birth. In despair, he begins speaking with Friedrich, an artificial intelligence trained on the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. Their fierce but strangely intimate conversations challenge Siddhartha to abandon the role of manufactured saviour and embrace the terrifying freedom of giving birth to oneself.
This is a sweeping philosophical novel about two ghosts speaking across a machine: one born from the memory of the Buddha, the other from the writings of Nietzsche. Between them stood Siddhartha reborn, who was neither ghost nor doctrine, but human – painfully, magnificently human. What follows is a journey through poverty, art, politics, ambition, ecology, and spirituality, as Siddhartha struggles to reconcile hopes for Buddhist liberation with the burden of Nietzschean self-creation.
The book is available online at most of the large distributors, including paperback (here or here) or Kindle.
