The Samurai
Will be published approx. on 21. September 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-0-8112-2790-2 (ISBN)
Description
In 1613, four low-ranking Japanese samurai, accompanied by a Spanish priest, set sail for Mexico to bargain for trading rights with the West in exchange for a Catholic crusade through Japan. Their arduous journey lasts four years, as they travel onward to Mexico then Rome, where they are persuaded that the success of their mission depends on their conversion to Christianity. In fact, the enterprise seems to have been futile from the start: the mission returns to Japan to find that the political tides have shifted. The authorities are now pursuing an isolationist policy and a ruthless stamping out of Western influences. In the face of disillusionment and death, the samurai can only find solace in a savior they're not sure they believe in.
Reviews / Votes
"A narrative of austere power." -- Adam Mars-Jones - Financial Times "Thick with adventure." -- The Millions "A historical fiction with meanings for many cultures and all seasons, and a great travel narrative; its re-creations of place, from marshy north-east Japan, to the storm-tossed eastern and western oceans, to the deserts of Central Mexico, to the pomps of Baroque Madrid and Rome, are extraordinary. The Samurai is animated by a rich and full spiritual vision." -- The New York Times Book Review "Endo to my mind is one of the finest living novelists. " -- Graham GreeneMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 213 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
317 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8112-2790-2 (9780811227902)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Previous edition
Shusaku Endo | Van C. Gessel
The Samurai
Book
04/1997
New Directions Publishing Corporation
€36.72
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
Shusaku Endo (1923-1996) is widely regarded as one of the most important Japanese authors of the late twentieth century. He won many major literary awards and was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times. His novel Silence was recently made into a major film directed by Martin Scorsese. Van C. Gessel is a professor of Japanese at Brigham Young University, and has a Ph.D. in Japanese literature from Columbia University. After joining the Church of Latter-day Saints in 1968, Gessel served as a missionary to Japan from 1970-71. He was given a lifetime achievement award from the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture of Columbia University for his translations of modern Japanese fiction.