| Sachiko Contributor(s): Gessel, Van (Translator), Endō, Shūsaku (Author) |
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ISBN: 0231197314 ISBN-13: 9780231197311 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $27.72 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Historical - World War Ii - Fiction | Religious - General |
| Dewey: 895.635 |
| LCCN: 2019057063 |
| Physical Information: 1.1" H x 5.5" W x 8.4" (1.10 lbs) 432 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In novels such as Silence, Endō Shūsaku examined the persecution of Japanese Christians in different historical eras. Sachiko, set in Nagasaki in the painful years between 1930 and 1945, is the story of two young people trying to find love during yet another period in which Japanese Christians were accused of disloyalty to their country. In the 1930s, two young Japanese Christians, Sachiko and Shūhei, are free to play with American children in their neighborhood. But life becomes increasingly difficult for them and other Christians after Japan launches wars of aggression. Meanwhile, a Polish Franciscan priest and former missionary in Nagasaki, Father Maximillian Kolbe, is arrested after returning to his homeland. Endō alternates scenes between Nagasaki--where the growing love between Sachiko and Shūhei is imperiled by mounting persecution--and Auschwitz, where the priest has been sent. Shūhei's dilemma deepens when he faces conscription into the Japanese military, conflicting with the Christian belief that killing is a sin. With the A-bomb attack on Nagasaki looming in the distance, Endō depicts ordinary people trying to live lives of faith in a wartime situation that renders daily life increasingly unbearable. Endō's compassion for his characters, reflecting their struggles to find and share love for others, makes Sachiko one of his most moving novels. |