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Translated from the Japanese by Van C. Gessel
In 1613, four low-ranking Japanese Samurai, accompanied by
a Spanish priest, set sail for Mexico on an unprecedented
mission: to bargain for a Catholic crusade through Japan in
exchange for trading rights with the West.
Among the first Japanese ever to set foot in Europe, they
travel to Rome and gain an audience with the Pope.
All are baptized, hoping to curry favour with their European
hosts. But upon returning to Japan, they discover that the
Shoguns no longer wish to forge links with the West, nor will
they tolerate the Christian religion. The seven-year mission
has been in vain. Disgraced and tormented, the Samurai begin
to identify deeply with the crucified Christ they formerly
reviled.
Based on historical fact, The Samurai is a powerful
examination of the impact of external events on our deepest
beliefs.
‘Genius . . . makes the imagination take wing.’
— Mail On Sunday
‘The kinds of shock experienced by the Samurai can be
transposed into Endo’s own coming to terms with the world
outside Japan. He has been called “the Japanese Graham
Greene” and indeed Greene is a great admirer. But Endo
is really like no one else.’ — Anthony Thwaite,
Observer
‘A wry and sometimes bitter meditation on the nature
of cultural values . . . Sensational events or powerful images
are pictured rather than expressed, so that they come to resemble
Japanese haiku. It is because of Endo’s restraint
that The Samurai is in the end so convincing.’
– Peter Ackroyd, Sunday Times
‘Entirely successful . . . a narrative of austere power.’
– Adam Mars Jones, Financial Times
Widely regarded as the most distinguished of contemporary
Japanese writers and several times shortlisted for the Nobel
Prize, SHUSAKU ENDO (1923—96) won many major literary
prizes in his lifetime. His books have been translated into
twenty-eight languages and include Silence, The
Sea and Poison, Deep River, Scandal and
The Samurai. |
