Silence tells a simple story in a powerful manner. The story takes place in Japan in the early 17th century, during a time when Christianity was banned and Christians subject to fearful persecution. A pair of Portuguese priests sneak into the country to provide solace to the underground Christian community and to discover the true fate of their spiritual mentor, who was reported to have apostatized under torture. The priests witness the cruel tactics of the Japanese authorities first hand, and it leads one of them to question how God could remain silent in the face of the Christians' suffering.
The strength of the book is the way it juxtaposes physical description of the natural world with the theological questions of Father Rodrigues. It reminded me of a Terence Malick film like The Thin Red Line. The story didn't always go where I expected it to, due to the ingenious way in which the Japanese use psychological methods rather than physical torture.
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