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Silence

Silence

by Shūsaku Endō

Foreword by Bishop Robert Barron

Format
Regular price $27.96 USD
Regular price $34.95 USD Sale price $27.96 USD
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The magnum opus of Japanese author Shūsaku Endō, Silence is the fictional story of a seventeenth-century Jesuit, Sebastian Rodrigues, who travels to Japan with a fellow priest during a period of extreme Christian persecution. Exterior trials rapidly befall the priests as they evade the authorities and witness the martyrdom of many believers in their care. The turmoil of Rodrigues’s interior life soon comes to the fore when he is made to confront the bitter consequences of refusing to renounce the faith. Endō’s gripping meditation on sacrifice and betrayal is a haunting account of the demands of Christian life and the trials of conscience amid violent oppression.

Details

Publisher: Word on Fire Classics
ISBN: 978-1-68578-250-4
Binding: Hardcover
Page count: 240
Dimensions: 6.25 x 9.25 (in)
Thickness: 0.91 (in)
Made in: United States
Language: English
Release date: Jul 20, 2026
Ribbon Bookmark: Yes

About the Author

Shūsaku Endō

Shūsaku Endō (1923–1996) was born in Tokyo and raised by his mother and an aunt in Kobe, where he converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of eleven. At Tokyo’s Keio University, he majored in French literature, graduating with a BA in 1949, before furthering his studies in French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France between 1950 and 1953. Before his death in 1996, Endō was the recipient of a number of outstanding Japanese literary awards—the Akutagawa Prize, Mainichi Cultural Prize, Shincho Prize, and Tanizaki Prize—and was widely considered the greatest Japanese novelist of his time.

Bishop Robert Barron

Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and the host of CATHOLICISM, a groundbreaking, award-winning documentary about the Catholic faith. On July 21, 2015, Pope Francis announced his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and on June 2, 2022, he appointed Bishop Barron the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester (Minnesota). Ordained in 1986 in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Bishop Barron received a master’s degree in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 1982 and a doctorate in sacred theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris in 1992.

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  • We do accept international returns, but we are unable to generate return labels for international shipments. 

 

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Return Policy

For non-damaged, standard returns:

Our products may be returned if they were purchased within the last 90 days, are unused, and are still in their original packaging. Original shipping costs are already collected by the shipper, and therefore the original shipping costs are not refundable.

We will provide a pre-paid return label to you. The maximum shipping cost covered will be $20. If the return shipping costs in excess of $20 to ship it to us, that will be deducted from the refund amount. (Meaning, if one orders 30 bibles and changes their mind after receiving them, it would not be good stewarding of our donor-provided funds for the ministry to cover that return shipment.)


Exceptions and limitations:

  • Bulk books (evangelization pricing): Books sold in pre-boxed quantities are evangelistic in nature and priced as low as possible, and we cover the original shipping cost. For that reason, we are unable to cover return shipping costs for bulk books. If you choose to return a bulk book, return shipping will be the customer’s responsibility in that case.
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For damaged items: 

For damages to the item that are significant in nature, such as missing pages, large gashes in the cover, major creases in the cover, or dents, etc, please email us at sales@wordonfire.org for a no-cost replacement. For minor damages, like a nick or otherwise tiny blemish, or a slightly bent inward corner, or a slightly flaked embossing, these returns may be accepted but the return shipping will not be covered in order to be good stewards of the donor provided funds that make our non-profit ministry possible. For items that are shipped in protective packaging, such as the Leather Bible, note that the outer box is meant to absorb damage in shipping, and the box should not be considered the product itself, and the box is not replaceable.

 

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Please email us to set up your return at sales@wordonfire.org. 

Your order record will be retrieved by the system based on the email address you used to make the purchase. For this reason, please have the email address or the order number (example: Q######) handy when beginning the return process. We are able to accept international returns, but we are unable to generate return shipping labels from countries outside the United States.  

 

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About the Author

Shūsaku Endō (1923–1996) was born in Tokyo and raised by his mother and an aunt in Kobe, where he converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of eleven. At Tokyo’s Keio University, he majored in French literature, graduating with a BA in 1949, before furthering his studies in French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France between 1950 and 1953. Before his death in 1996, Endō was the recipient of a number of outstanding Japanese literary awards—the Akutagawa Prize, Mainichi Cultural Prize, Shincho Prize, and Tanizaki Prize—and was widely considered the greatest Japanese novelist of his time.

Middle-aged man wearing glasses and bishop attire with a magenta zucchetto and gold chain against a plain dark background.

About the Foreword Author

Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and the host of CATHOLICISM, a groundbreaking, award-winning documentary about the Catholic faith. On July 21, 2015, Pope Francis announced his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and on June 2, 2022, he appointed Bishop Barron the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester (Minnesota). Ordained in 1986 in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Bishop Barron received a master’s degree in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 1982 and a doctorate in sacred theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris in 1992.