Shūsaku Endō (1923-1966) is one of Japan's most distinguished novelists, noted for his examination of the relationship between East and West through a Catholic perspective. He achieved international acclaim following the publication of his 1966 novel Silence, which was adapted into a 2016 film by director Martin Scorsese. Endō was the recipient of multiple major literary awards, including the Akutagawa Prize and the Order of Culture, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize.

Van C. Gessel is renowned for his work as the primary translator for the Japanese novelist Shūsaku Endō. He obtained his Ph.D. in Japanese literature from Columbia University. In 2018 Gessel was honoured with the Order of the Rising Sun for his outstanding work in Japanese Literature and won the Lindsley and Masao Miyoshi Translation Prize in 2020-2021 for lifetime achievement as a translator of modern Japanese fiction.