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The Last Days of Night cover art

The Last Days of Night

By: Graham Moore
Narrated by: Jonathan McClain
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Summary

From Graham Moore, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and New York Times best-selling 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 lightbulb 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 Paul 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 onstage 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.

©2016 Graham Moore (P)2016 Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

"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, New York Times best-selling author of Gone Girl)
"A fascinating portrait of American inventors.... Moore weaves a complex web.... He conjures Gilded Age New York City so vividly, it feels like only yesterday." ( Entertainment Weekly)
" The Last Days of Night is a wonder, a riveting historical novel that is part legal thriller, part techno-suspense....Thoughtful and hugely entertaining." (Scott Turow, best-selling author of The Laws of Our Fathers)

What listeners say about The Last Days of Night

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    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting history but dry at times

I enjoyed this tale (based on a true story) of Edison and his quest to be recognised as the inventor of the lightbulb. It certainly makes history accessible and gave lots of detail about this period in history and the way people acted. Written as a novel it has an advantage over history books, but I found it rather dry and slow at times. The main story focuses on a young lawyer, Paul, who represents Westinghouse -the man up against Edison and the clear underdog from the start. A good listen, good but not great is my verdict. The narrator was good, solid & serious with enough variation to lift the text most of the time. Towards the end a few silly voices crept in but overall very good narration.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Compelling, wonderfully narrated.

The book was Compelling and wonderfully narrated.
I will seek out other books from this author.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

was just ok

it's nice to get historical fact intertwined with fiction. it was just not my cup of tea.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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loved it

done a great job of keeping me gripped whilst educating me without lecturing. definitely recommend for anybody who doesn't know the story

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Absorbing

I remember where I was when listening to particular scenes because it is so memorable a story. To write a novel focused on a person who was a major figure in history but of whom too little is known to write a biography, is a gift to us and that figure.
This story is marvelously crafted from fact and imagination. An insight into scientific development and nineteenth century life.
(The one little annoyance were the claims of the most ____ person in the world, with the assumption that because the author knew of no comparable person in the world that their ignorance proved a fact. US-centricity takes the edge off the excellence. Yet)
this is one of the best audiobooks I've heard and I would not hesitate recommending it.

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