A Life of Jesus

Shūsaku Endō

Jan 1978 · Paulist Press

About this ebook

Shusaku Endo is considered one of Japan's greatest modern writers. His novel Silenceis acknowledged as a masterpiece and has been translated into many languages. The Final Martyrs, published in English just before his death in 1996, reinforced his reputation as a major literary figure. Endo was born in 1923 and converted to Christianity as a boy. His stories and novels attempt to integrate his religious faith with Japanese culture.

Endorsements

"This is the whole life of Jesus. It stands out clean and simple, like a single Chinese ideograph brushed on a blank sheet of paper. It was so clean and simple that no one could ever make sense of it, and no one could produce its like."
--Shusaku Endo

"Endo's graceful life of Christ ranks with that of François Mauriac as one of the great volumes of its kind written in this century."
--Harry James Cargas

"He knows the land. His descriptions of the Judean countryside and the little towns that dot it, and of the incredibly bleak and empty desert, are among the most real and poetic I have ever read."
--The Catholic Review

"Endo is a consummate writer who, as a master photographer, brings intense sentiment, character, and movement out of the subtle light and shadows that he focuses around his subject..."
--Choice

"...characterized by simple language, but reveals a profound perceptivity. The translation by Richard Schuchert deserves a special commendation."
--Roanoke Time & World-News
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About the author

Shusaku Endo was born in Tokyo in 1923 and, with his family, converted to Catholicism while he was still a child. Much of his writing centers on the conflict this conversion engendered as he struggled to develop faith in a deity foreign to Japanese culture. His writings also reflect on his experiences during World War II during the bombings and the subsequent shortage of basic human necessities for the Japanese people. He explores the suffering endured and the inevitable shock wave upon human relationships and the human psyche. Endo graduated from Keio University and then journeyed to France after the war to continue his studies, but was forced to return to Japan because of illness. After a period of convalescence Endo decided on a writing career, publishing his first novel, Shiroihito, in 1955. His novel The Samurai, published in the United States in 1996, is considered one of his finest works. His novel Silence, was made into a major motion picture and premiered in November 2016. Endo's reputation is due in part to his exploration of moral dilemma as it relates to divergent cultures. Endo has won many literary awards. In 1982 he was elected to the Japan Arts Academy. Shusaku Endo died in 1996.