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Had it not been for the reviews I had seen from my friends whose tastes and opinions I respect, I probably would not have read this book. Reason being that I hesitate to read religious and atheist books because of the preaching, a condescending tone that is normally vehicle for the rant that boils down to: we are in the right, they are in the wrong and these couple of hundreds of pages will be dedicated to proving my point. And given the short description that accompanied the story I thought that the book would somehow be one of those books, and how wrong I was, and how glad am I that there were reviews that encouraged me to read this book.

It is the first half of the seventeenth century, Christianity has been outlawed in Japan and clergy members and Christians found practicing are tortured, forced to apostatize and killed. Sebastião Rodrigues, a young Jesuit priest journeys to Japan in this age to find out what happened to his mentor Ferreira, who had also been a missionary in Japan for many years, whom he looked up to and admired and still cannot believe the reports concerning his apostatizing.

To provide some historical context, Western powers had already begun their exploits around the world by the period this book is set in. By the 1640s the Americas, Africa, and Asia had all in some way or other already been colonized and occupied, with slavery booming during this period. Japan, which was under an emperor no doubt, must have felt threatened by the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and other European powers�� interest in Asia. Not to mention the wars the Portuguese and Spanish had been fighting in Asia against Muslims, and their racist and religious disdain for Asians being non-white and non-Christian. And to add to all this, the suspicion that the Christian faith was making the citizenry less loyal to the emperor and state, so Japan cut itself off from the outside world in 1641 and only dealt with foreigners from an artificial island off Nagasaki - an isolation that would last two centuries.

Back to the book, the Portuguese missionaries who had at first enjoyed a great relationship with the government and the lords find themselves in a fix; the relationship turns sour and the persecution of Christians begins. In comes Rodrigues, an enthusiastic priest, filled with ideals as he begins his quest.

Shusaku Endo is an incredible writer. His prose is magnificent, and his ability to describe the inner struggle of the priest as he faces torture and his faith is shaken, and to draw quite a portrait of the time and place was just remarkable. Silence here, the silence of God as cruelty happens is explored.
We journey with Rodrigues as he hides from the authorities, as he communes with Japanese peasants, as he suffers personal losses and loses the romanticized ideals he had on life and faith. Such unforgettable characters Endo built with the treacherous Kichinjiro and the priests, Rodrigues himself, Garpe and Ferreira as well as the Japanese Christians facing persecution and the persecuting Japanese officials.

I appreciate the honesty that the writer gives us with this story, honesty that is rare with books concerning faith or the lack thereof. Even though Shusaku Endo himself was a Catholic, there is no condescending here, just wonderful writing, excellently told.