HomeScience FictionA Canticle for Leibowitz

Cover of A Canticle for Leibowitz

Science Fiction · 1959 · PG-13

A Canticle for Leibowitz

by Walter M. Miller Jr.

A monastery in the desert preserves human knowledge across 1,800 years of civilization's rise and fall.

For14+GenreScience FictionLength320 pagesRead time~8.5 hours

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What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

Violence

Some

Nuclear war consequences; post-apocalyptic violence; a disturbing ending

Language

Barely any

Mild language

Sexual Content

Barely any

Brief references

Substance Use

None

No substance use

Emotional Intensity

A lot

Philosophical despair about human nature's inability to change; theological wrestling with death and euthanasia

What this book is about

Set in the American southwest over 1,800 years following a nuclear holocaust, Miller's celebrated science fiction novel follows monks at the Monastery of the Blessed Leibowitz as they preserve scraps of technical knowledge through three ages: a new Dark Age, a new Renaissance, and a new nuclear civilization heading toward the same catastrophe. A profound meditation on history's cycles, the relationship between religion and science, and whether humanity can learn from its mistakes.

Notes for sensitive readers

Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.

Themes of nuclear war and civilizational collapse

Philosophical discussion of death and euthanasia

Complex theological content

Cyclical despair about humanity's future

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