Skip to main content
book cover for Lords of Serendipity

Lords of Serendipity

An epic campus novel, for fans of Percival Everett's Erasure and Paul Murray's The Bee Sting

Sign In or Register Now to see if this title is available for request.

Buy on Bookshop.org Buy on Waterstones
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app


1

To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

2

Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.

Pub Date 5 Nov 2026 | Archive Date 5 Nov 2026


Talking about this book? Use #LordsofSerendipity #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

A SHARPLY FUNNY AND MOVING NOVEL WHERE THOUSANDS OF MILES APART FROM EACH OTHER, TWO GIRLS HAVE THE SAME DREAM . . .

'Tender, eviscerating, perfect'
Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

'As moving as it is hysterically funny'
Gary Shteyngart, author of Vera, or Faith

'Sparkling, humane and irresistible'
Garth Risk Hallberg, author of City on Fire
_____________________________

Devi is a Sri Lankan village girl who dreams of going to Harvard. Devi's father cleans toilets in a five-star hotel to pay for his daughter to be tutored by a dapper young Indian man - who might not be the Oxford scholar he claims to be on Whatsapp . . .

Katrina is a middle-class American girl whose life has been designed to get her into an elite liberal arts college. Katrina's father teaches extra courses at a mediocre technical university to pay for his daughter's academic experiences. Meanwhile, his tech bro TA expertly extorts money from international students terrified of flunking out and being deported . . .

Set between contemporary Sri Lanka and the United States, Lords of Serendipity is a global campus novel for the 21st century. A funny, moving, and sharply observed story about dreams and ambition meeting corruption and hypocrisy, about strivers and hustlers, and the lengths parents will go to for their children.
_____________________________

PRAISE FOR LORDS OF SERENDIPITY

'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

'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

'This is a new kind of campus novel, a wicked but humane satire...' Tom Perrotta

'A sparkling, humane, and irresistible campus novel. As Randy Boyagoda celebrates (and subverts) the comedy of college, he offers what any good education should: not a microcosm, sealed off from the world, but a wide-ranging, free-thinking inquiry into life beyond the ivory tower' Garth Risk Hallberg, author of City on Fire

A SHARPLY FUNNY AND MOVING NOVEL WHERE THOUSANDS OF MILES APART FROM EACH OTHER, TWO GIRLS HAVE THE SAME DREAM . . .

'Tender, eviscerating, perfect'
Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780349148960
PRICE £20.00 (GBP)
PAGES 352

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Reader (PDF)
NetGalley Shelf App (PDF)
Send to Kindle (PDF)
Download (PDF)

Available to Buy

Buy on Bookshop.org Buy on Waterstones
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Average rating from 1 member