Description

‘Serious, theologically-charged fiction of the highest quality: full, bleak, richly particular’Kirkus Reviews

Winner of the 1980 Noma Literary Prize – a darkly absorbing portrayal of the first Japanese voyage across the Pacific, by the author of Silence

In 17th-century Japan, a diplomatic mission sets sail for the West. Among those facing the combined perils of the sea and foreign courts are ambitious Spanish missionary Pedro Velasco, and Hasekura Rokuemon, a disregarded samurai determined to recover his family’s standing. They travel to Mexico City, Rome and back – but Japan’s new rulers are persecuting Christians, and if the men survive the journey, they may not survive their homecoming.

This true story of courage and endurance is told with Endo’s signature power and simplicity.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Van C. Gessel.

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 the Culture from the Japanese government. Among his other novels are Deep River, The Sea and Poison, and his masterpiece Silence, all published by or forthcoming from Pushkin Press.

VAN C. GESSEL (b. 1950) is the former Dean of the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University, and the foremost translator into English of the work of Shusaku Endo. He holds a doctorate in Japanese literature from Columbia University, and in 2018 received Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun for his contribution as a translator of Japanese literature.

Publisher Review

‘Serious, theologically-charged fiction of the highest quality: full, bleak, richly particular’ – Kirkus Reviews

‘Powerful… beautifully written… a fascinating narrative with its double perspective from East to West’ – New Statesman

‘Endo is really like no one else… as that rarity, a Japanese Catholic, he has found a border territory – of cultural and psychological clash – which is all his own’ – The 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 Endos restraint that The Samurai is in the end so convincing’ – Sunday Times

‘Genius… makes the imagination take wing’ – Mail on Sunday