Silence
by Shūsaku Endō · first published 1980
100% recommend
An historical novel by Japanese writer Shusaku Endo telling the story of a young Portuguese missionary in 17th Century Japan. After being smuggled into the country a Jesuit missionary fresh from the seminary finds the Christian population have been forced underground by a government eager to stamp out foreign interference and values. Consequently he quickly finds himself a fugitive in a strange and frightening land and begins to doubt his mission due to the silence of his god.
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…Miserables - Victor Hugo. Small Gods - Terry Pratchett. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. The Guide - R. K. Narayan. Evidence - Mary Oliver. All of Us - The Collected Poetry of Raymond Carver. Silence - Shusaku Endo. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Murakami Haruki. This and the next four are odd choices, perhaps, since it's a surrealist book, but IMO books that…
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗Read 34 books (and audiobooks, I guess that counts) so far this year. Best have been Fiction: - Revolutionary road by Richard Yates - Anathem by Neal Stephenson - Silence by Shusaku Endo Non fiction: - Atomic Habits by James Clear - Man’s search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?” ↗…Frank Herbert posting twitter hot takes as a worm with no story Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger. Among the best novellas I've ever read, very different in tone from most of his books. Shūsaku Endō, Silence. Book about a Jesuit mission in early Edo Japan. My favorite Japanese book in a long time. Among technical books, re-read The Mythical Man Month, probably more relevant than it ever was in an age of…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗