‘The Sea and Poison’ by Shūsaku Endō (Review)

Over the past few years, I’ve steadily been making my way through the works of Japanese writer Shūsaku Endō, and I’ve managed to accumulate quite a collection now, with books both new and second-hand. When I discovered, then, that one of the titles I didn’t own had been rereleased in a new edition by Pushkin Press, I was naturally delighted and promptly ordered a copy. This is an early novel, and in many ways it’s a little different to the author’s later work, but it puts a new spin on post-war Japan, a country where many people have secrets they wish to conceal. ***** The Sea and Poison (translated by Michael Gallagher) begins in the 1950s with a Tokyo office worker, a man with lung issues, looking for a new doctor after having moved out into the distant suburbs. He soon stumbles across Suguro, a man with a deft touch but one who avoids conversation or unnecessary human contact, and intrigued by the doctor’s manner, the patient tries to find out what Suguro’s big secret is. However,…