The Invention of Everything Else — Samantha Hunt

Nikola Tesla spends the last days of his extraordinary life at the Hotel New Yorker “in this surreal historical novel [that] dazzles in the details” (The New Yorker).
 
It is 1943, and legendary inventor Nikola Tesla occupies a forbidden room on the 33rd floor of the Hotel New Yorker, stealing electricity. Broke, forgotten, and suffering from a weak heart, his only consolations are his memories and his daily walks to Bryant Park. Louisa, a young hotel chambermaid, is determined to befriend him. And as she helps him on his daily walks, she wins his affection through a shared love of pigeons. Little by little, he confides in her the tragic and tremendous story of his life. 
 
Meanwhile, Louisa's father is embarking on an unlikely mission to travel back in time to find his beloved late wife. A “sophisticated pastiche of science fiction, fantasy, melodrama, and historical anecdote,” The Invention of Everything Else is both a heartfelt story of love and death and an homage to one of history's most visionary scientists (Elle).