World Made By Hand, by James Howard Kunstler.
Fantastic book. I'm only about 6 chapters in. It basically tells the story of a small town's inhabitants in upper New York 20 or so years after nukes are set off in various parts of the USA, followed by a flu that wiped out much of the rest of our people. Our nation, in this book, has also been with very little or no oil for decades, as the "Holy War" and other engagements pretty much severed our ties with our remaining allies. Electricity is a distant memory for the most part, as well.
Basically our civilization has had to re-invent itself.
This is a book that I could see becoming "required reading" in college or high school literature classes... it's really that good. It doesn't touch upon the horror of the bombs or the flu, it focuses on the town and its people, and their everyday life... it's great stuff.
I saw the sequel to it, recently released, in a bookstore.. so I tracked down the first in the series.
It's really quite good; classical literature with an apocalyptic twist.
My copy has a "Reading Group Discussion Guide" in the back of it.
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