The Last Days of Night
A Novel
(Sprache: Englisch)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "A world of invention and skulduggery, populated by the likes of Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla."-Erik Larson
"A model of superior historical fiction . . . an exciting, sometimes astonishing story."-The Washington Post
...
"A model of superior historical fiction . . . an exciting, sometimes astonishing story."-The Washington Post
...
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "A world of invention and skulduggery, populated by the likes of Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla."-Erik Larson"A model of superior historical fiction . . . an exciting, sometimes astonishing story."-The Washington Post
From Graham Moore, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian, comes a thrilling novel-based on actual events-about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America.
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.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE PHILADELPHIA
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INQUIRER
"A satisfying romp . . . Takes place against a backdrop rich with period detail . . . Works wonderfully as an entertainment . . . As it charges forward, the novel leaves no dot unconnected."-Noah Hawley, The New York Times Book Review
"A satisfying romp . . . Takes place against a backdrop rich with period detail . . . Works wonderfully as an entertainment . . . As it charges forward, the novel leaves no dot unconnected."-Noah Hawley, The New York Times Book Review
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Lese-Probe zu „The Last Days of Night “
CHAPTER 1 The Last Days of Night
People don t know what they want until you show it to them. Steve Jobs
May 11, 1888
On the day that he would first meet Thomas Edison, Paul watched a man burn alive in the sky above Broadway.
The immolation occurred late on a Friday morning. The lunchtime bustle was picking up as Paul descended from his office building onto the crowded street. He cut an imposing figure against the flow of pedestrians: six feet four inches, broad shouldered, cleanshaven, clothed in the matching black coat, vest, and long tie that was to be expected of New York s young professional men. His hair, perfectly parted on the left, had just begun to recede into a gentle widow s peak. He looked older than his twenty-six years.
As Paul joined the throng along Broadway, he briefly noticed a young man in a Western Union uniform standing on a ladder. The workman was fiddling with electrical wires, the thick black cables that had recently begun to streak the skies of the city. They crisscrossed the thinner, older telegraph wires, and the spring winds had gusted them into a knotty bundle. The Western Union man was attempting to untangle the two sets of wires. He looked like a child flummoxed by enormous shoelaces.
Paul s mind was on coffee. He was still new to the financial district, new to his law firm s offices on the third floor of 346 Broadway. He hadn t determined which of the local coffeehouses he preferred. There was the one to the north, along Walker. And the slower-serving but more fashionable one, on Baxter, with the rooster on the door. Paul was tired. The air felt good against his cheeks. He hadn t been outside yet that day. He d slept in his office the night before.
When he saw the first spark, he didn t immediately realize what was happening. The workman grabbed hold of a wire and tugged. Paul heard a pop just a quick, strange pop as the man shuddered. Paul would later
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remember seeing a flash, even if at the time he wasn t sure what it was. The workman reached out for support, grasping another wire with his free hand. This, Paul would come to understand, was the man s mistake. He d created a connection. He d become a live conductor.
And then both of the workman s arms jolted with orange sparks.
There had to be two hundred people crowding the street that morning, and every head seemed to turn at the same time. Financiers parading in their wide-brimmed top hats; stock traders assistants sprinting down to Wall Street clutching secret messages; social secretaries in teal skirts and sharp matching jackets; accountants out hunting for sandwiches; ladies in Doucet dresses visiting from Washington Square; local politicians eager for their duck lunches; a fleet of horses dragging thick-wheeled cabs over the uneven cobblestones. Broadway was the artery that fueled lower Manhattan. A wealth heretofore unknown on the face of the earth was burbling up from beneath these very streets. In the morning s paper Paul had read that John Jacob Astor had just become officially richer than the Queen of England.
All eyes fixed on the man in the air. A blue flame shot from his mouth. The flame set fire to his hair. His clothes burned off instantly. He fell forward, his arms still wrapped around the wires. His feet dangled against the ladder. His body assumed the position of Jesus upon the cross. The blue flame fired through his mouth and melted the skin from his bones.
No one had screamed yet. Paul still wasn t even sure what he was watching. He had seen violence before. He d grown up on a Tennessee farm. Death and the dying were unspectacular sights along the Cumberland River. But he d never seen anything like this.
Epoch
And then both of the workman s arms jolted with orange sparks.
There had to be two hundred people crowding the street that morning, and every head seemed to turn at the same time. Financiers parading in their wide-brimmed top hats; stock traders assistants sprinting down to Wall Street clutching secret messages; social secretaries in teal skirts and sharp matching jackets; accountants out hunting for sandwiches; ladies in Doucet dresses visiting from Washington Square; local politicians eager for their duck lunches; a fleet of horses dragging thick-wheeled cabs over the uneven cobblestones. Broadway was the artery that fueled lower Manhattan. A wealth heretofore unknown on the face of the earth was burbling up from beneath these very streets. In the morning s paper Paul had read that John Jacob Astor had just become officially richer than the Queen of England.
All eyes fixed on the man in the air. A blue flame shot from his mouth. The flame set fire to his hair. His clothes burned off instantly. He fell forward, his arms still wrapped around the wires. His feet dangled against the ladder. His body assumed the position of Jesus upon the cross. The blue flame fired through his mouth and melted the skin from his bones.
No one had screamed yet. Paul still wasn t even sure what he was watching. He had seen violence before. He d grown up on a Tennessee farm. Death and the dying were unspectacular sights along the Cumberland River. But he d never seen anything like this.
Epoch
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Autoren-Porträt von Graham Moore
Graham Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian and the Academy Award–winning screenwriter for The Imitation Game, which also won a Writers Guild of America Award for best adapted screenplay. Moore was born in Chicago, received a B.A. in religious history from Columbia University in 2003, and now lives in Los Angeles.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Graham Moore
- 2017, 384 Seiten, Masse: 12,8 x 20 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Random House Trade Paperbacks
- ISBN-10: 0812988922
- ISBN-13: 9780812988925
- Erscheinungsdatum: 10.07.2017
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
A satisfying romp . . . Takes place against a backdrop rich with period detail . . . Works wonderfully as an entertainment . . . As it charges forward, the novel leaves no dot unconnected. Noah Hawley, The New York Times Book ReviewThis captivating historical novel illuminates a fascinating American moment. People
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
Devil in the White City fans, you'll adore this one. . . . Secret societies, private spites, vast fortunes this book has it all. But the way all its stories fit together at the end will make you realize that everyone was playing their own game all along. But of course, only one will win. Refinery 29
A marvelous legal thriller set in a magical time when inventions were truly wonders, [Moore] knows how to grab your attention and not let go. . . . This is historical fiction at its very best. . . . The Last Days of Night is just as crackling as the electricity at its very core. Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
Moore s writing is sharp and as energized as his topic. . . . This is a riveting book that will hold your attention and will illuminate many on the birth of light in America. Part legal thriller, part romance, injected with a history lesson. Worth the read.
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Historical Novel Society
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
The Last Days of Night is a wonder, a riveting historical novel that is part legal thriller, part techno-suspense. This fast-paced story about the personal and legal clash over the invention of the light bulb is a tale of larger-than-life characters and devious doings, and a significant meditation on the price we as a society pay for new technology. . . . Thoughtful and hugely entertaining. Scott Turow
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
The Last Days of Night is a wonder, a riveting historical novel that is part legal thriller, part techno-suspense. This fast-paced story about the personal and legal clash over the invention of the light bulb is a tale of larger-than-life characters and devious doings, and a significant meditation on the price we as a society pay for new technology. . . . Thoughtful and hugely entertaining. Scott Turow
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