A beautiful yet disturbing book. I did not expect to find new-to-me horrors in a nuclear apocalypse story, especially one written so early in the Cold War. It is an incredibly thought provoking book, one that will stick with me for a long time.

Contrary to another reviewer, I believe the lessons in this book are as timely and important today as they were more than 60 years ago. The threat of nuclear annihilation is still with us and will never go away as long as humanity tolerates their existence. Canticle highlights this danger more than any other book I have read.

Since finishing, I have read a number of reviews and analyses of Canticle and am a bit confused by the repeated critique of its lack of female characters. The story takes place almost exclusively in the context of a Catholic monastery where women aren't even allowed. So the absence of female characters for much of the book was not something that felt problematic. Even then, two of the most important characters in the final act are women. One of whom drives home how myopic the well meaning monks were from the everyday world and the other half of humanity.