The current issue of the Englewood Review has a review of a new collection (in English), brought out by Yale University Press, of stories from Japanese writer Shusaku Endo. He has long been one of my favorite writers. His best-known book in the West is probably Silence, if only because of the film adaptation from Martin Scorsese, also a big fan of Endo’s writings and who had wanted to make the film for more than twenty-five years, according to interviews with him. My favorite of Endo’s works, though, is the poignant Deep River, with its convergent narrative structure following different people’s stories to a coming together of sorts, perhaps followed by Wonderful Fool. I've given away several copies of Deep River and usually have a standby handy for anyone interested. Both have as a main character a “holy fool,” a naïve, sometimes bumbling person, trying to hold on to ideals and largely ignored or looked down on by others. As the reviewer suggests in the Englewood Review, this new collection is not a good starting place for Endo’s writings but will be welcomed by his longtime readers. I’ll put Portraits of a Mother: A Novella and Stories on my reading list as my budget allows.

https://englewoodreview.org/shusaku-endo-portraits-of-a-mother-feature-review/