'Flawless' – David Mitchell
'A masterpiece’ – Daily Telegraph
Winner of the Tanizaki Prize
Published in 1967 in Japan to huge controversy, Silence is Shusaku Endo's most highly acclaimed novel and a classic of its genre.
Father Rodrigues is an idealistic Portuguese Jesuit priest who, in the 1640s, sets sail for Japan on a determined mission to help the brutally oppressed Japanese Christians. He must also discover the truth behind unthinkable rumours that his famous teacher Ferreira has renounced his faith. Once faced with the realities of religious persecution Rodrigues himself is forced to make an impossible choice: whether to abandon his flock or his God.
As empathetic as it is powerful, Silence is an astonishing exploration of faith and suffering and an award-winning classic.
Now a major film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Liam Neeson, Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield.
'One of the finest novels of our time' – Graham Greene
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781035038862
Number of pages: 272
Weight: 188 g
Dimensions: 198 x 130 x 17 mm
One of the finest historical novels written by anyone, anywhere . . . Flawless - David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks
This is a masterpiece. There can be no higher praise - Daily Telegraph
One of the finest novels of our time - Graham Greene
A remarkable work . . . sombre, delicate and startlingly empathetic - John Updike, New Yorker
Superb and harrowing - his masterpiece - Observer
A marvellous book . . . Shusaku Endo is giving deep thought to the most basic problems of truth and how in exchanging it among ourselves we misconstruct its nature at every step - Spectator
Silence is a compelling historical fiction, a potent distillation of the paradoxes and ambiguities of faith and, from a Christian author, a daring challenge to religious orthodoxy - 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read, Guardian
Silence was my introduction to Endo and I have since read every single book of his I could get hold off as Silence was definitely a 'wow' book.
I have not seen either films of the books so I cannot comment,...
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A very well written account of the suppression of Christianity in Japan in the 1600's. It was a book I struggled to put down, I saw the film and the story stayed with me so felt I had to read this and it was not... More
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