The Samurai
Shusaku Endo
(Author)
Van C Gessel
(Translator)
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.Product Details
Price
$15.95
$14.83
Publisher
New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date
August 28, 2018
Pages
272
Dimensions
5.4 X 8.2 X 0.7 inches | 0.66 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780811227902
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About the Author
William Johnston, MA (Dub) Solicitor, has been a partner in Arthur Cox for 30 years, is a former chair of the Banking Law Division of the International Bar Association and is external examiner in Banking Law for the Law Society.
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.
Reviews
A narrative of austere power.--Adam Mars-Jones
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.
Endo to my mind is one of the finest living novelists.--Graham Greene
Thick with adventure.-- (07/17/2018)
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.
Endo to my mind is one of the finest living novelists.--Graham Greene
Thick with adventure.-- (07/17/2018)
