Graham Moore, a multitime New York Times best-selling author and Oscar-winning screenwriter for The Imitation Game , is headed to Sylvania on Thursday.
In the Starlite Theater’s inaugural authors series, Mr. Moore will share insights into his writing process and inspirations for his new book: The Wealth of Shadows , a historical novel about an ordinary man who seizes the opportunity to join a secret mission to bring down the Nazi war machine — not with bullets, but by crashing the economy.
“I just became fascinated by a story that I'd never heard of before,” Mr. Moore said of the book's main character, Ansel Luxford.
“The book is told from his perspective. You're kind of inside his head,” he said. “The whole book you only see what he sees. You only hear what he hears. You only know what he knows.”
An Evening with Graham Moore kicks off with a VIP mix-and-mingle reception set for 6 to 6:45 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. author presentation, question-and-answer session, and book signing at the Franciscan Center on the Lourdes University campus.
The rare, in-person event serves as an opportunity for attendees to meet the mastermind behind best sellers: The Holdout , The Last Days of Night , and The Sherlockian.
Amazon describes The Wealth of Shadows as “a mind-expanding historical novel about the mysterious powers of money, the lies worth telling to defeat evil, and a hidden war that shaped the modern world.”
“Everyone kind of has some understanding of the story of World War II, but this unique perspective of just this regular guy, a tax attorney from St. Paul, being thrust into this world of spy and espionage, jumping on planes going across the globe, and, suddenly, in way over his head,” Mr. Moore said. “I thought, there's a really unique perspective on more in that period of history.”
As the missions in which Mr. Luxford was involved were top secret, the research process for the book was quite challenging, Mr. Moore said. He will share how he was able to uncover the incredible story, including interviews with the three Luxford children, one of whom always had suspicions that his dad was “secretly a spy.”
In addition to the Academy Award, Mr. Moore also won a Writers Guild of America Award for The Imitation Game ; and he was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for his role of director and co-writer of The Outfit .
There are already talks of the new book being adapted to film, but top priority, Mr. Moore said, was to “get the best version of the story in the first medium.”
Ben Malczewski, Starlite’s vice president and development director, said the new author series is poised to raise the bar for arts and culture in Sylvania.
“We do a lot with the arts and celebrate the arts, and this was really our attempt to kind of include literature, poetry, and the written word into that mix,” he said.
In partnership with Lourdes University, Finch & Fern Book Co., and Red Bird Sylvania, the event is sponsored by Anderson Miller Insurance with additional support from the Taylor Automotive Family. “It's really kind of an ‘Of Sylvania, By Sylvania’ type of thing,” Mr. Malczewski said.
With past author events selling out, organizers anticipate the new series will follow suit.
“We're hoping for the same with Graham, and it's a way we can bring that attention to the Sylvania community, give them something to be proud of,” Mr. Malczewski said. “So it's placemaking, it's culture building, it's community building, and it's really a sum of everybody working together.”
William Bisset, president of Lourdes University, said the school is honored to host and believes the events will draw people from both inside and outside of the university’s community.
“We've always looked at the Franciscan Center as being kind of our front porch to the Sylvania community,” Mr. Bisset said. “We really do want to be considered Sylvania’s university and this is an example of us being able to be the venue for very special evenings with very special individuals.”
The reception offers an opportunity to meet the author beforehand. A signed copy of the book and light refreshments are included. Tickets are through Eventbrite but are going fast, Mr. Malczewski said.
Future author events feature New York Times best-selling author Tracy Chevalier, June 28; Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Emily Nussbaum, July 10; and creator of Whole30 plan, which guides health transformation, Melissa Urban, Aug. 6.
“It's driven by the heart of people wanting to support arts and culture and seeing the world through different lenses and through other people's eyes,” Mr. Malczewski said.
For more information about the event or Starlite, visit https://www.starlitetheatergroup.org/ .
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