Day 1,841

Steppenwolf was published in 1927 and reads as modern as anything published today.

I didn’t know much about this book, apart from its literary and social influence, but it certainly wasn’t what I expected. I didn’t realise I’d be reading something that feels so modern, fresh, and incredibly relevant in today’s world.

Harry Haller leaves a manuscript of his strange and wonderful inner and outer life to the nephew of his landlady – then disappears.

In the first few pages of Steppenwolf, the nephew tells us of his short time spent with the strange, sad, and brilliant lodger he so admires, but finds impossible to understand. Then, ‘we’ get to read the whole of Haller’s manuscript to ourselves. But is it real? Or is Haller simply a brilliant fantasist?

Harry is not happy. Harry is us.

Harry Haller believes he is half wolf. This is explained to us in dream-states, a magic theatre, and in conversations with the woman he needs to fall in love with and then – kill.

Suicidal, Harry meets Hermione and everything changes. She tells him he takes life way too seriously and teaches him to dance to music he hates. She also finds him a lover in the prostitute, Maria.

Every hour of every day, the wolf had ripped the meat and chewed the bones from the important parts of his academic, social and romantic life. It snarled and sniggered at his every thought and action, making him insular, self-doubting, and often suicidal.

But now he dances to jazz music with every woman in the room. He has learned to smile and enjoy himself.

But it never lasts.

Can Hermione save him from himself and keep him alive? Will he ever be free of his Steppenwolf? Can he save himself from himself?

I loved this book so much. More than my meagre ramblings can explain. I’m glad I read it before being hit by a bus, or decapitated by a speeding fin in a sharknado. Because you just never know!

Read it now – just in case!