I think that Canticle for Leibovitz is one of the great speculative fiction novels of the 20th century, one of the great post apocalyptic novels of all time. It’s also become clear to me that a lot of people who are not as old haven’t read it. What more recent books would you compare it to?

If Internet Archive recovers from its denial of service attack, they have an *excellent* radio play version of the novel. Highly recommended.

I read it 50 years ago as a teen. There aren’t many comparable books but Chronopolis and The Crying of Lot 49 had a similar effect on me. Maybe Gravity’s Rainbow.

I wouldn't!

You saying not everyone has a teenage new wave sci-fi reading spell that covers Canticle and The Stars My Destination and Phillip K. Dick and all that

Not particularly recent, but Alas, Babylon? Admittedly, I've only read the wikipedia article for Canticle.

Funny thing is that you have to get it in paperback. There's no epub edition that I've found.

Neal Stephenson's Anathem prompted me to go re-read A Canticle for Leibowitz.

So it's probably not helpful here, because I'd imagine even fewer people have read it than Canticle, but if you like the latter I recommend checking out Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne Valente. It's a fever dream of gorgeous and bizarre Catholic/Orthodox myth and imagery, I love it so much.

Not an exact match but The Power gave me the same feelings.

Looking forward to seeing the answers, because I'm hoping to find newer works to read. I've started The Road, but it strikes me as far too vague on the causes of the apocalypse?