Lords of Serendipity
An epic campus novel about the hopes and hypocrisies of 21st-century higher education, from one of Canada’s most celebrated literary novelists.
Devi is a Sri Lankan village girl who dreams of going to Harvard. Katrina is a middle-class American girl whose life has been designed to get her into an elite liberal arts college. Devi’s father cleans toilets in a five-star hotel to pay for his daughter’s Indian tutor, who might not be the Oxford student he claims to be on WhatsApp. Katrina’s father teaches extra courses at a mediocre technical university to pay for his daughter’s academic lifestyle experiences. Meanwhile, his tech-bro TA expertly extorts money from international students worried about flunking and getting deported.
Set between contemporary Sri Lanka and the United States, Lords of Serendipity is a wry, moving, and sharply observed story about how rich and poor alike try to get ahead by going to university. It’s about dreams and ambition meeting corruption and hypocrisy. It’s about what parents are willing to do for their children, and about what strivers and hustlers are willing to do when they meet gatekeepers.
This is the 21st-century global campus novel, a story about two teenage girls from opposite sides of the world with the same dream: four years in a quadrangle-shaped paradise that offers lots of super amazing courses and super amazing protests. The novel couldn’t be more timely in this absurd and perilous-feeling moment for both American life and higher education.
Praise & Reviews
Named a Best Book of Fall 2026 by Oprah Daily and People
“Ambitious…It’s the kind of no-holds-barred book only a consummate insider would know to write—but only one who is also conveniently outside the American university system could get away with writing. . . . An old-fashioned Dickensian tale, it sweeps across continents and campuses.”
—Pamela Paul, The Wall Street Journal
“A darkly funny, continent-hopping satire with a sharp eye on the bottom line.”
–People
“This clever, continent-hopping read expands the frame of the classic campus novel to include the often-invisible characters behind a university education: the parents. . . . Boyagoda’s mordant satire of academia and its costs is also a touching tribute to what parents will do for their children.”
–Oprah Daily
“It’s hard to miss the parallels between this novel and the social satires of Victorian-era novelist Anthony Trollope… A smart cautionary tale about the perils of ambition.”
–BookPage
“Dazzling…The way Boyagoda develops and connects these characters is as compelling as it is seamless, merrily leading readers to the cynical revelations at its core. Working with many of the same themes as Min Jin Lee in American Hagwon, Boyagoda is serious about the bond between parents and children, bringing his satire’s plot to an unexpected and satisfying close with a climactic scene… Richard Russo meets Mohsin Hamid in this knowing tale of academia and the lives of struggling South Asians.”
–Kirkus (starred review)
“Thoughtfully examines the lengths parents will go to see their children succeed, how ambition fuels hypocrisy, and what compels the rich and poor to seek elevation through education.”
—Booklist
“Engrossing … Boyagoda offers a clear-eyed view into academia’s competition, corruption, and exploitation. This leaves readers with much to chew on.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“A book that’s a feast, an occasion and a celebration. Randy Boyagoda delightfully skewers the industrial-academic complex but also creates moving characters who seem to have walked in from the dorm and faculty meeting next door. The result is as moving as it is hysterically funny.”
–Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of Vera, or Faith
“Randy Boyagoda’s Lords of Serendipity is utterly fantastic and timely beyond belief. This is the campus novel we’ve all been waiting for: tender, eviscerating, perfect.”
–Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
“This is a new kind of campus novel, a wicked but humane satire that envisions a global community of strivers, charlatans, jaded bureaucrats, and ethically challenged scholars whose lives and destinies keep intersecting in unexpected places with unpredictable outcomes. Randy Boyagoda is a wry and clear-eyed guide to this three-ring academic circus of careerism, venality, and stubborn hope for a better future.”
–Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of The Leftovers and Ghost Town
“Sparkling, humane, irresistible … As Randy Boyagoda celebrates (and subverts) the comedy of college, he offers what any good education should: a wide-ranging, free-thinking inquiry into life beyond the ivory tower.”
—Garth Risk Hallberg, author of City on Fire and The Second Coming
Interviews & Media
In this interview on The World of Higher Education Podcast, author and professor Randy Boyagoda discusses how Lords of Serendipity expands the traditional campus novel to examine the global higher education system, the urban legend that inspired the book, and the moral compromises within modern academia. Listen here →
On an episode of CBC Sunday Magazine, Randy Boyagoda discusses what it means to be part of a university today, the importance of productive disagreement, and the global nature of higher education. Listen here →
Randy Boyagoda discusses Lords of Serendipity, campus fiction, and higher education on the American Campus Podcast. Listen here →
In conversation with New York Times critic Parul Sehgal, Randy Boyagoda discusses what distinguishes the global campus novel from traditional campus fiction, the risks involved in writing one, and the absurd theatre of higher education in the twenty-first century. Watch here →
Randy Boyagoda discusses Lords of Serendipity, what goes in a name, and a lifetime in higher education in a new Q&A with Writer Interviews. Read here →
Boyagoda discusses Lords of Serendipity on CHCH Morning Live. Watch here →
Emily Donaldson interviews Randy Boyagoda for The Globe and Mail, where Boyagoda speaks about how he became a novelist, irony and his Catholic sensibilities, and the joy he finds in university life. Read here →
Pamela Paul profiles Randy Boyagoda in The Wall Street Journal, where they discuss the inspiration behind Lords of Serendipity, Boyagoda’s teaching, the importance of the humanities, campus politics, and the financial and moral crises facing contemporary higher education. Read here →