A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by
American writer Walter M. Miller, Jr., first published in 1960. Based on
three short stories Miller contributed to The Magazine of Fantasy and
Science Fiction, it is the only novel published by the author during his
lifetime. Considered one of the classics of science fiction, it has
never been out of print and has seen over 25 reprints and editions.
Appealing to mainstream and genre critics and readers alike, it won the
1961 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel.
A
monk novice, Brother Frances discoveries a fall-out shelter 600 years
old, containing the tooth and skeleton of the wife of the Blessed
Liebowitz, the founder of the order who taught his monks to collect
books and memorize them and or pass them along AKA Bookleggers.
Blessed
Liebowitz had been a nuclear engineer who sought refuge in Holy Mother
Church. He is later betrayed by a friend and was martyred.
Hope is carried by the bookleggar monks but the ending is cyclically chilling but hopeful in the stars.
Set in a Roman Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern
United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands
of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the Albertian
Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving
remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the day the outside world
is again ready for it.
Inspired by the author's participation in the Allied bombing of the monastery at Monte Cassino during World War II, the novel is considered a masterpiece by literary critics. It has been compared favorably with the works of Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and Walker Percy and its themes of religion, recurrence, and church versus state have generated a significant body of scholarly research.
This old time radio show is based on the novel. The book won the
Hugo award winner for best science fiction novels of all time.
This
may be the best-produced audiobook dramatization of a novel in the
English language.
