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Mind-blowing. It tells about the 17th century Japan when the Tokugawa shogunate was in power. During this time, practicing Catholics were called Kakure Kirishitan ("Hidden Christians") because they had to do their religious rituals underground. This was also the time of "fumie" a metal plate bearing the images of Jesus and Mary. The religious police asked the families suspected to be Catholics to trample this fumie to prove that they had not converted from Buddism.

It was also during this time when Portuguese missionaries arrived in Japan to further propagate the Catholic faith. This book, Silence tells the story of the Jesuit priest, Sebastian Rodriguez who has to come to Japan via Macao to find the truth about his mentor Cristobal Ferreira who is reported to have apostatized, i.e., have defected from the Catholic faith.

The first few chapters of the book are told in a chronicle-like narration. Fr. Rodriguez records his day-to-day experience during his journey to Japan. Once in the country, the narration shifts to third party narrator. The shift is like journeying together with the narrator and then later looking at the whole scene as a third person. The effect is fresh and invigorating despite the too sad and serious theme of sacrificing life and bearing all the tortures just to keep one's faith in God. Its impact to me was that I should not take my belief in God for granted because missionaries (now saints and blessed ones) gave up their lives to spread the Catholic faith all over the world. Although I am living in the Philippines and Catholicism spread in the country almost with no resistance, still what some missionaries in other parts of the world played the roles of martyrs and their examples should always be remembered.

The title of the book came from their question of why during this era in Japan, God had remained silent. That during the torture of the missionaries when they were asked to stay inside a small well until they were dead, God did not do anything. The question was answered at the end of the novel and it was I think an appropriate ending.

I recommend this book to all religious scholars who want to know more about that era in Japan. I also recommend this to all fans of Japanese novels in English. It is just mind-blowing and bewildering in this beauty: prose, theme and content.

My second Endo and he is still to disappoint. Whew!