The Return was written in 1909 for the literary magazine Die Neue Rundschau and is one of the lesser-known narratives by Hesse, published for the first time in the Greek language.
It tells the story of a well-traveled man, a businessman, who, after years in America and Russia, decides to return and settle permanently in his hometown, somewhere in the Black Forest. There, he is welcomed with great enthusiasm, mainly due to the fortune he has meanwhile acquired.
However, when he begins to show interest in a widow, who is the subject of gossip in the small town, gradually the situation changes and he himself becomes a target, along with the woman, of social ostracism. In the end, he makes the decision to leave his homeland for the second time, along with its suffocating conventions and hypocrisy.
In 2012, it was made into a film, directed by Jo Baier.
