The Great Eastern Format: Paperback

From the shipyards of London to the ports of New York, from the undersea abyss to the halls of empire, The Great Eastern is a sweeping tale of invention, rebellion, and the war between creation and destruction.

A vast iron ship. Two legendary captains. A battle for the soul of an age.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the world stood on the brink of transformation. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the audacious engineer, dares to build the largest vessel ever conceived—the Great Eastern, a ship so immense it might stitch continents together with telegraphic wire. But beneath the waves lurks Captain Nemo, haunted genius of the submarine Nautilus, sworn enemy of empire and progress alike. When Nemo discovers Brunel’s plans, he vows to destroy both the ship and the world it represents.

Into this collision of titans steps another ghost of literature and legend: Captain Ahab, dragged from his watery grave, driven by obsession and vengeance, and drawn inexorably into the struggle between Brunel’s vision and Nemo’s rage.

At once a thrilling sea adventure and a subversive reimagining of classic myth, Howard A. Rodman’s audacious novel resurrects larger-than-life characters to tell a story that is as strange and wondrous as the century that gave birth to them.

Howard A. Rodman is the author of the novels Destiny Express and The Great Eastern. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Black Clock, and elsewhere. As a screenwriter his films include Joe Gould’s Secret; August with Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn, and David Bowie; and Savage Grace with Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne. On television, he’s written for Fallen Angels and staffed on HBOMax’s The Idol.  

He’s a vice president of the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a past president of the Writers Guild of America West.Rodman is one of seventeen members of the Screenwriters Hall of Fame, and was knighted by the Republic of France as an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

As an academic, Rodman is professor and former chair of the division of screenwriting at USC; as a journalist, he’s published hundreds of articles beginning with his tenure as editor-in-chief of the Cornell Daily Sun. In 2011 Rodman organized the nationwide Fantômas centennial, and remains on the steering committee of NOIRCON. Those who lived through the post-punk era in lower Manhattan may have seen him play guitar with the bands Arsenal and MADE IN USA. A proud son of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Rodman currently lives in Los Angeles.