Trying to find out the title of a book....

[GSte]

Now I know this is a real stab in the dark, but having read some posts on here it seems like there are some pretty knowledgeable people on this forum.....

So I'm trying to find out the title of a book I've never actually read.... they were discussing it on Newsnight Review sometime in the last three years I think. All I can really remember is that the setting is some kind of post-apocalpyptic world, and the main character is a priest, or cleric of some kind I think who is raised in some kind of vault or underhive, then sent out into the world for some purpose I'm unsure of. I know this is all very vague! I remember the panelists saying that it was quite a lengthy book, and that the author had invented his own language that is used throughout the book.....

Sorry that's such a vague description but I figure that it must be quite a famous sci fi author to have made it onto Newsnight Review, and it sounded so fascinating that I was gutted when I realised I'd forgotten the title!

Many thanks for any help.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Sorry that's such a vague description but I figure that it must be quite a famous sci fi author to have made it onto Newsnight Review,

Have you considered the possibility that it was a SF(ish) novel from some critically well respected author not usually prone to outbreaks of SF? Like Atwood's The Year of the Flood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Year_of_the_Flood
or Cormac McCarthy's The Road?

Not saying it IS either of those but knowing the way critics (still) seem to regard SF as not quite grown-up writing it might be worth thinking about.

 

[clovis-man]

I'd be more inclined to say it might be A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller.

 

[dwndrgn]

Darn. Clovis-Man got there before me...

 

[JunkMonkey]

I had thought of A Canticle For Leibowitz but I don't remember Miller inventing a language for it. And it sounds like the sort of thing a 'literary' type of writer coming to SF for the first time would do.

 

[ashewyntr]

Could it be Anathem? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem

 

[GSte]

Have you considered the possibility that it was a SF(ish) novel from some critically well respected author not usually prone to outbreaks of SF? Like Atwood's The Year of the Flood

or Cormac McCarthy's The Road?

Not saying it IS either of those but knowing the way critics (still) seem to regard SF as not quite grown-up writing it might be worth thinking about.

Good thinking, I'm pretty sure it was that type of thing, I think it was only the author's first or second SF novel.....

I'd be more inclined to say it might be A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller.

I don't think it was that, but thanks for the suggestion..... Looks like that was first published in 1960 and the book they were reviewing had just been released...

Could it be Anathem?

You know, I think that might be it! I'm not 100% sure and I can't find anything on the net that says they reviewed that, but it sounds right from what I've read, they live in sealed communities, it's a long book and has its own language...... good work!!! Thanks a lot, it's been bugging me for the past two years and it only occurred to me last night to try asking somewhere like this!

 

[bangerm]

it sounds like
"hiero's journey" to me
m

 

[Sekt]

You're lucky if it's Anathem, 'cause that book rules.

 

[Metryq]

Darn. Clovis-Man got there before me...

Quoth Christopher Columbus upon setting foot on shore.

 

[Tansy]

If it was a game it would be fall out

If it was a movie it sounds like the Book of Eli - was this originally a book?

 

[YourNameHere]

Just guessing here, but... Three books I can think of that are post-apocalyptic with invented non-English language are:

1) A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller (As per clovis-man's post above)
2) Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
3) The Book of Dave by Will Self

Character / plot sounds like (1), but review timing is more like (3) = 2006, except that the inevnted language is only used in the dialogue, the narative is in English. (2) has invented language throughout?