A Canticle for Leibowitz

An oddly touching book. It begins with Catholic monks in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and ends a thousand years later...with Catholic monks in space. In between, Miller outlines a world in which a rigidly dogmatic band of friars becomes the world's most potent force for humanism and technological progress. And somehow that makes sense. It's an original premise combined with an extraordinary sense of humor and a strong emotional core.