Silence
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With an introduction by Martin ScorseseBeneath the light of the candle I am sitting with my hands on my knees, staring in front of me. And I keep turning over in my mind the thought that I am at the end of the earth, in a place which you do not know and which your whole lives through you will never visit.It is 1640 and Father Sebastian Rodrigues, an idealistic Jesuit priest, sets sale for Japan determined to help the brutally oppressed Christians there. He is also desperate to discover the truth about his former mentor, rumoured to have renounced his faith under torture. Rodrigues cannot believe the stories about a man he so revered, but as his journey takes him deeper into Japan and then into the hands of those who would crush his faith, he finds himself forced to make an impossible choice: whether to abandon his flock or his God. The recipient of the 1966 Tanizaki Prize, Silence is Shusaku Endo's most highly acclaimed work and has been called one of the twentieth century's finest novels. As empathetic as it is powerful, it is an astonishing exploration of faith and suffering and an award-winning classic. 'One of the finest historical novels written by anyone, anywhere . . . flawless' David Mitchell'A masterpiece. There can be no higher praise' Daily Telegraph
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This is an extremely powerful book about faith taking place in 17th century Japan where Christianity is outlawed and Christians are brutally tortured and forced to renounce their beliefs. Two Jesuit priests go there to help the Christian peasants and also hope to find their former mentor who is rumoured to have renounced his faith under torture.
This book is not an easy read as it's very realistic and depressing and to my knowledge, mostly historically accurate to the time period. It's hard to read about innocent peasants having to die in horrible ways just because of what they believed in. Also the loneliness that Father Rodrigues experiences, physically and spiritually, in Japanese prisons as he doesn't understand why God is remaining silent in his time of misery is really depressing.
The first part of the book was written in letters from Father Rodrigues and the second part was a third person narrator. Usually, I'm not one to enjoy epistolary novels but this was an exception as I thoroughly enjoyed it; the writing did not become lazy as it sometimes can when writing in letters. As usual, I enjoyed third person narration more but the epistolary didn't take anything away from my enjoyment of the novel.
I think anyone could read this and appreciate the beautiful writing of Shusaku Endo but it will particularly strike a chord in Christian readers. The ending to this book is amazing and I think it could be interpreted differently depending on the reader, which is very interesting. There's a lot to take away from this book and it could warrant a few rereads.
5 stars