The Last Days of Night by
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A thrilling novel based on actual events, about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America--from the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and author of The Sherlockian SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING EDDIE REDMAYNE New York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history--and a vast fortune. A young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul's client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country? The case affords Paul entry to the heady world of high society--the glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more insidious dealings done behind closed doors. The task facing him is beyond daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his disposal--private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. P. Morgan himself. Yet this unknown lawyer shares with his famous adversary a compulsion to win at all costs. How will he do it? In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off. As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he'll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem. Praise for The Last Days of Night "A fascinating portrait of American inventors . . . Moore crafts a compelling narrative out of [Paul] Cravath's cunning legal maneuvers and [Nikola] Tesla's world-changing tinkering, while a story line on opera singer Agnes Huntington has the mysterious glamour of The Great Gatsby. . . . Moore weaves a complex web. . . . He conjures Gilded Age New York City so vividly, it feels like only yesterday."--Entertainment Weekly "A model of superior historical fiction . . . Graham Moore digs deep into long-forgotten facts to give us an exciting, sometimes astonishing story of two geniuses locked in a brutal battle to change the world. . . . [A] brilliant journey into the past."--The Washington Post "Mesmerizing, clever, and absolutely crackling, The Last Days of Night is a triumph of imagination. Graham Moore has chosen Gilded Age New York as his playground, with outsized characters--Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse--as his players. The result is a beautifully researched, endlessly entertaining novel that will leave you buzzing."--Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl "In The Last Days of Night, Graham Moore takes us back to the dawn of light--electric light--into a world of invention and skulduggery, populated by the likes of Edison, Westinghouse, Tesla, and the novel's hero, a young lawyer named Paul Cravath (a name that will resonate with ambitious law students everywhere). It's part legal thriller, part tour of a magical time--the age of wonder--and once you've finished it, you'll find it hard to return to the world of now."--Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City
In Development --
Director: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Eddie Redmayne
Graham Moore
A thrilling novel based on actual facts about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America. It’s New York City in 1888 and gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history and a vast fortune. Will it be inventor Thomas Edison or George Westinghouse as a tense legal battle ensues over who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country? A young, inexperienced, yet ambitious lawyer named Paul Cravath, recently graduated from Columbia Law School, takes the impossible case. He must defend Westinghouse who is being sued by the cunning and crafty Edison over the billion dollar question: who invented the light bulb? How Cravath tackles this challenging, yet infamous case, which exposes him to high society and gives him national attention, makes for a fascinating and intriguing historical novel.
Graham Moore is a New York Times bestselling novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. His screenplay for “The Imitation Game” won the Academy Award and WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2015 and was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.
His novels, The Last Days of Night (2016) and The Sherlockian (2010), were published in 24 countries and translated into 19 languages. The Last Days of Night was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He adapted the screenplay for the The Last Days of Night, which is soon to be a major motion picture starring Academy Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne.
Graham Moore received a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious history from Columbia University in 2003. He stayed in New York City after graduation and played in a number of rock bands and worked as a sound engineer while pursuing his writing career. He currently lives in Los Angeles.