The Samurai

A superb historical novel by one of Japan's greatest novelists

In 1613 Father Pedro Velasco's dream came true. He set sail with a small group of Japanese Samurai first for Mexico, then Spain, then Rome. Velasco could speak Japanese and his zealous hope was to become bishop of a converted, Catholic Japan. They were the first Japanese ever to cross the Pacific. Velasco's mission, along with that of the Samurai, was to use Western trade to turn Japan into a Christian country. This epic journey was filled with incredible danger and hardship, underwritten solely by faith...

An exciting, imaginative dramatization of real events, Endo's great work is also a profoundly personal one, reflecting on his beliefs.