A Canticle for Leibowitz

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What to expect

Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of twentieth-century literature—a chilling and still-provocative look at a postapocalyptic future.

In a nightmarish, ruined world, slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infantile rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes.

Seriously funny, stunning, tragic, eternally fresh, imaginative, and altogether remarkable, A Canticle for Leibowitz retains its ability to enthrall and amaze. It is now, as it always has been, a masterpiece.

Critics Review

  • “Angry, eloquent…A terrific story.”

    New York Times
  • “Chillingly effective.”

    Time
  • “An extraordinary novel…Prodigiously imaginative, richly comic, terrifyingly grim, profound both intellectually and morally, and, above all…simply such a memorable story as to stay with the reader for years.”

    Chicago Tribune
  • “An exciting and imaginative story…Unconditionally recommended.”

    Library Journal

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