Literature Nobelist who wrote "Siddhartha"

HESSE

["This German author explored spiritual journeys in his famous novel about self-discovery."]

The clue asks for the surname of a Nobel Prize-winning author known for the novel "Siddhartha." Hermann Hesse, a German-Swiss writer, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946, and "Siddhartha" is one of his most famous works. The answer is simply his last name, "HESSE," which fits the given number of letters in the crossword. No wordplay is involved—it's a straightforward reference to the author.