A review by sherbertwells
Silence by Shūsaku Endō

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

During the Tokugawa persecutions, two Portuguese Jesuits venture into the “swamp” of Japan in search of a mentor rumored to have abandoned the faith. The intense, melancholy themes presented by Endō are stifled by a too-conventional translation.

“On the day of my death, too, will the world go relentlessly on its way indifferent as it is now? After I am murdered, will the cicadas sing and the flies whirl their wings inducing sleep…the martyrdom of these peasants, enacted before his very eyes—how wretched it was, miserable like the huts they lived in, like the rags in which they were clothed” (128)
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