A review by frooblie
In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians: A Story of Suppression, Secrecy and Survival by John Dougill

3.0

I was disappointed that the book didn't describe the Hidden Christians' beliefs and practices until just before the end. Much of the book was devoted to describing the Jesuits' arrivals and departures and the atrocities that the Japanese believers had to endure because of their faith, but without an understanding of what that faith was and why believers were so devoted to it, I find it hard to understand how any of that history happened.

I also found the mixture of travelogue and more formal, academic history styles to be jarring. I'd get into the history of who was where, and then the author's voice would interject and talk about being on a boat from wherever to somewhere else. It wasn't bad, just awkwardly done.