A World to Win

The Lanny Budd Novels, Book 7

By: Upton Sinclair

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Presidential Agent 103 is targeted by allies and enemies alike as the Nazis roll across Europe in this novel in the Pulitzer Prize-winning series.

Europe, 1940. As war rages across the continent, America watches anxiously from the sidelines. And President Franklin Roosevelt has been keeping an even closer eye on developments in the Third Reich. At the president’s personal request, Lanny Budd gained the confidence of the Nazi high command and began transmitting valuable information back to the White House.

Espionage is a dangerous game, however, and Presidential Agent 103 soon finds himself a target of the French Resistance fighters he is attempting to assist. On a trip to London, Lanny avoids death during a Luftwaffe bombing raid and takes part in the capture of Rudolf Hess. He gets stranded in Asia and is forced to make his way across war-torn China after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor finally brings the United States into the global melee. But Lanny’s most important mission still lies before him: he must enter the lion’s den alone and unprotected once more to unearth the Nazi Party’s most deeply buried secret—the progress of Hitler’s scientists in the race to build the atom bomb.

A World to Win is the electrifying seventh chapter of the Pulitzer Prize-winning series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to vivid life. An astonishing mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of Upton Sinclair’s vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.

©1947 Upton Beale Sinclair (P)2024 Blackstone Publishing

The best of the series so far

There is no accent that Bronson Pinchot can’t do.

I occasionally have issues listening to the sort of white savior-ism of the times but overall Sinclair was pretty advanced and he gets Lannie into the center of everything. I do wonder if his unvarnished Stalinism will adjust in the final books

Bronson Pinchot narration or nothing

Okay, that isn't entirely true. The book on its own is one of my favorites, and this series has given me the best return on my attention in meaningful information. Upton Sinclair takes us all across America, Europe, and the world in this one!

My only complaint in Reading the series is that characters Never say things that are... out of character. The variety/world of developed characters are where the story becomes alive, which more than makes up for this to me.

However, Bronson Pinchot performs the narration so that the characters are real; not ideals, not memes, and indeed real. Bronson demonstrates this to be my own failing as an imaginative reader... I was almost in tears towards the end of the book. I look forward to whenever the next audiobook in the series becomes available more than anything on Audible.

The Lanny Budd books

Although the books are dated in some respects, the themes and actions of the historical characters have a strong message for us in 2024.