Considered one of the late Shusaku Endo s finest works THE SAMURAI seamlessly combines historical fact with a novelist s imaginings. Set in the period preceding the Christian persecutions in Japan recorded so memorably in Endo s SILENCE this book traces the steps of some of the first Japanese to set foot on European soil. One of the late Shusaku Endo s finest works The Samurai tells of the journey of some of the first Japanese to set foot on European soil and the resulting clash of cultures and politics.