Silence: Shusaku Endo

Jesuit priest Sebastian Rodrigues sets sail for Japan in 1640, full of idealistic fire. But the cold land he arrives in has no place for missionaries: the Tokugawa shogunate has banned Christianity, and believers face torture and execution. Living in hiding, leading worship in secret, Rodrigues begins to question the true meaning of compassion – and the limits of his own belief.
This stunning work of historical fiction – introduced by Martin Scorsese, who adapted it into a film – is one of literature’s deepest explorations of doubt, fellowship, and enduring faith.
Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by William Johnston.

Shusaku Endo (1923-1996) was one of the greatest novelists of postwar Japan. Baptised as a Roman Catholic as a child, his work explores the relationship between East and West from his unique perspective as a Japanese Christian. Endo won the Akutagawa Prize and the Yomiuri Literary Prize, was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times, and received an Order of Culture from the Japanese government. Among his other novels are Deep River, The Samurai and The Sea and Poison, all published by Pushkin Press.

William Johnston (1925-2010) was born in Belfast. He entered the Jesuit priesthood and was sent to their mission in Japan in 1951. He would spend most of the rest of his life there, teaching English at Tokyo’s Sophia University, writing on mysticism, and practising aspects of both Catholicism and Zen Buddhism.