From beloved Japanese author Shu-saku Endo-, a newly discovered novella and five short stories of love, grief, and maternal longing Shu-saku Endo- (1923-1996), widely considered one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, is known for his historical novels, which masterfully probe the encounters between the cultures and religions of East and West. A lifelong Roman Catholic, Endo- wrote frequently about the persecution of Japanese Christians, most famously in his novel Silence (1966). A salient and curious theme in his work is the unique image of a maternal God, and a concomitant sense of loss and longing for maternal love. -Confronting the Shadows,- his semiautobiographical novella discovered at the Endo- Museum in Nagasaki in 2020, is the author-s most personal work and constitutes the interpretive key to his entire oeuvre. Translated into English here for the first time, it conjures the story of Suguro, an aspiring novelist who was separated from his mother after his parent
