The Last Days of Night

Set in New York in 1888, when gas lamps still lit the streets and electric light was new, Graham Moore's novel draws on actual events in the fight to electrify America. Paul Cravath, a young lawyer just out of Columbia Law School, takes a seemingly hopeless case. Thomas Edison is suing Paul's client, George Westinghouse, over a billion-dollar question: who has the right to power the nation, and who really invented the light bulb. Edison has spies, friendly newspapers and the support of J. P. Morgan. Pursuing victory, Paul crosses paths with the eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla and the opera singer Agnes Huntington. Moore, an Oscar-winning screenwriter whose credits include The Imitation Game, also wrote The Sherlockian.

Vinod Khosla, who says he does not read fiction, put it on his 2017 book recommendations as a fun, almost historical novel, especially for Silicon Valley types. Fabrice Grinda also lists it among his recommended books.