"Thought-provoking and moving. Complex and multilayered. [ Silence ] is a great achievement, and I love the book." - David Mitchell, author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas " Silence I regard as a masterpiece, a lucid and elegant drama." - The New York Review of Books "One of the best historical novels by anyone, ever." --David Mitchell (from an interview on Foyles.com) "Somber, delicate, and startlingly empathetic." --John Updike (from Endo's New York Times obituary) "Endo has been repeatedly, tiresomely, compared to Graham Greene, who warmly praised [Silence].

But Greene's fascination with sin and guilt looks very tame when put beside Endo's." --Gary Wills, The New York Review of Books "A masterpiece, a lucid and elegant drama about a Portuguese missionary tormented by Japanese inquisitors." --Irving Howe, The New York Review of Books "Endo's disarmingly direct and poignant narration masks a complex moral discussion." --Robert Coles, New Oxford Review "Endo's grandest novel." --Robert Winder, Independent (London) "Endo succeeds in creating a vision of Christian faith obstinate enough to endure even in soils that have never been fertile for its growth." --The CS Lewis Review "At the height of his powers, the author produced two historical masterworks, [including] Silence." --Crisis Magazine.