The Long Tomorrow is a Coming of Age Story novel by Leigh Brackett, first published in 1955 and nominated for a Hugo Award in 1956. Set a hundred years after a nuclear war, the United States is reduced to Nineteenth Century technology and dominated by "New Mennonites" and other conservative religious sects, who violently oppose any attempt to improve technology, or even build cities.
The plot is a common one from mid-Twentieth Century SF:The hero, Len Coulter, is teen-aged boy who wants to learn more than is allowed.
He runs away (along with his cousin), attempting to find "Bartorstown", a fabled city of high technology that is the epitome of evil to his society.
Brackett plays the story for drama, not adventure. Len's father and some other conservativesare portrayed sympathetically, the journey takes months, andLen finds Bartorstown more prosaic than expected.
