World's End

From the acclaimed author of The Jungle: The first in a Pulitzer Prize–winning historical saga about the son of an American arms dealer during WWI. Lanning "Lanny" Budd spends his first thirteen years in Europe, at the center of his mother's glamorous circle of friends. In 1913, he enters a Swiss boarding school and befriends Rick, an English boy, and Kurt, a German. The three schoolmates are privileged, happy, and precocious—but their world is about to come to an abrupt and violent end. As the Great War begins, Lanny must put the innocence of youth behind him; his language skills and talent for decoding messages are in high demand. At his father's side, he meets many important political and military figures, and closely follows the First World War's progress. When the hostilities eventually conclude, Lanny joins the Paris Peace Conference as the assistant to a geographer asked by President Woodrow Wilson to redraw the map of Europe. World's End is the magnificent opening chapter of a monumental series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to vivid life. A thrilling 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. "Few works of fiction are more fun to read; fewer still make history half as clear, or as human." —Time "When people ask me what has happened in my long lifetime, I do not refer them to the newspaper files and to the authorities, but to [Sinclair's] novels." —George Bernard Shaw "[The] most faithful portrait of that period that has been done." —H. G. Wells