When I Whistle

Shusaku Endo (1923-1996) became a Roman Catholic at the age of eleven with the encouragement of his mother and an aunt. At Tokyo's Keio University he majored in French literature, a subject he further studied from 1950 to 1953 at the University of Lyon in France on a Japanese government scholarship. In Japan he won a series of outstanding literary awards: the Akutagawa Prize, the Mainichi Cultural Prize, the Shincho Prize, and the Tanizaki Prize. He also received honorary doctorates from various American universities. His books have not only been translated into English but also into French, Russian, Swedish and other languages, bringing him great renown worldwide. Endo has often been called "the Japanese Graham Greene" for his fusing of the literary traditions of East and West..