Silence - Shusaku Endo - 1971

"In an age marked by efforts on all sides to transcend East-West differences, Shusaku Endo's basically pessimistic attitude toward the success of such efforts may come as a jolt to some. 'East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet' is given a most emphatic reaffirmation in Endo's works, in which he tries to convey to readers a hint of the immense distance separating East and West. Thus, in *Silence*, against a background of 17th-century Nagasaki and the persecution of Jesuit priests and their Japanese converts, we find the author tackling a larger theme of Japanese insensibility to God, sin, and death—three very fundamental religious realities concerning which Japanese converts and Western priests had divergent attitudes, with neither side aware of the divergence. All of which leads to the author's contention that the Japanese are incapable of ever becoming true Christians. This translation makes available for the first time in English the best-seller that created such a stir in Japan in 1966-7, both as the center of controversy and as the favorite topic of conversation of millions." - Silence - Shusaku Endo Published 1971, Charles E. Tuttle Company / The Voyagers' Press, Tokyo Hardcover. Approx. 5x7in. 306pp. Dustjacket has chunks missing at spine ends, edges. Book itself is in good vintage condition (typical of a Tuttle publication)