Shusaku Endo was born in Tokyo and grew up in Manchuria, China, where his father was transferred for work. When he was 10 years old, his parents split up, and he moved with his mother back to Japan. They moved to Kobe, where his mother's sister lived, and she convinced Endo and his mother to convert to her Catholic faith.
As a young adult, Endo attended Keio University, where he studied French literature—much to the dismay of his distant father, who wanted him to be a doctor. Poor living conditions and stress led to his developing tuberculosis at the age of 22. It was to become a lifelong health struggle for him, along with other issues like pleurisy.
In his late 20s, Endo studied at the...
