The Sea and Poison

'An important book' Telegraph Winner of the Akutagawa Prize In 1950s Japan, Doctor Suguro practises medicine in a backwater still recovering from the war. Quiet and withdrawn, he lives tortured by his conscience and a horrific wartime memory: participating in the vivisection of an American airman, an experiment which led to his agonising death. This spare, harrowing novel, based on real events, is a profound exploration of the pressures of conflict, the moral numbness of conformity, and the painful legacy of violence. Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe. Translated by Michael Gallagher. SHUSAKU ENDO (1923-1996) was one of the greatest novelists of postwar Japan. Baptised as a Roman Catholic as a child, his work explores the relationship between East and West from his unique perspective as a Japanese Christian. Endo won the Akutagawa Prize and the Yomiuri Literary Prize, was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times, and received an Order of Culture from the Japanese government. Among his other novels are Deep River, The Samurai, and his masterpiece Silence, all published by or forthcoming from Pushkin Press. MICHAEL GALLAGHER (b. 1930) is a former Jesuit brother and teacher, who has translated several novels from Japanese, including work by Yukio Mishima, Sakyo Komatsu and Akiyuki Nosaka. His translation of Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1973.

'An important book' Telegraph Winner of the Akutagawa Prize In 1950s Japan, Doctor Suguro practises medicine in a backwater still recovering from the war. Quiet and withdrawn, he lives tortured by his conscience and a horrific wartime memory: participating in the vivisection of an American airman, an experiment which led to his agonising death. This spare, harrowing novel, based on real events, is a profound exploration of the pressures of conflict, the moral numbness of conformity, and the painful legacy of violence. Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe. Translated by Michael Gallagher. SHUSAKU ENDO (1923-1996) was one of the greatest novelists of postwar Japan. Baptised as a Roman Catholic as a child, his work explores the relationship between East and West from his unique perspective as a Japanese Christian. Endo won the Akutagawa Prize and the Yomiuri Literary Prize, was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times, and received an Order of Culture from the Japanese government. Among his other novels are Deep River, The Samurai, and his masterpiece Silence, all published by or forthcoming from Pushkin Press. MICHAEL GALLAGHER (b. 1930) is a former Jesuit brother and teacher, who has translated several novels from Japanese, including work by Yukio Mishima, Sakyo Komatsu and Akiyuki Nosaka. His translation of Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1973.

The Sea and Poison was the first Japanese book to confront the problem of individual responsibility in wartime, painting a searing picture of the human race's capacity for inhumanity. At the outset of this powerful story we find a Doctor Suguro in a backwater of modern-day Tokyo practicing expert medicine in a dingy office. He is haunted by his past experience and it is that past which the novel unfolds. During the war Dr. Suguro serves his internship in a hospital where the senior staff is more interested in personal career-building than in healing. He is induced to assist in a horrifying vivisection of a POW. "What is it that gets you," one of his colleagues asks. "Killing that prisoner? The conscience of man, is that it?"

The Sea and Poison was the first Japanese book to confront the problem of individual responsibility in wartime, painting a searing picture of the human race's capacity for inhumanity. At the outset of this powerful story we find a Doctor Suguro in a backwater of modern-day Tokyo practicing expert medicine in a dingy office. He is haunted by his past experience and it is that past which the novel unfolds. During the war Dr. Suguro serves his internship in a hospital where the senior staff is more interested in personal career-building than in healing. He is induced to assist in a horrifying vivisection of a POW. "What is it that gets you," one of his colleagues asks. "Killing that prisoner? The conscience of man, is that it?"