The Samurai

About

In 1613, four low-ranking samurai are sent from Japan to Mexico and then to Europe on a diplomatic mission, accompanied by a Spanish priest whose agenda doesn't quite align with theirs. The journey takes years, spans continents, and forces the samurai to confront a faith — Christianity — that their homeland will soon violently reject. Endo, himself a Catholic, writes about the collision between Eastern and Western belief systems with the intimacy of someone who has lived inside both. The novel is historically grounded but emotionally contemporary, asking what happens when duty demands you adopt a belief and the belief starts to feel real. A novel about a journey that changes everything — and the discovery that the most dangerous foreign country is the one inside your own convictions.