Cedarbrae Blog

Have you met Sam Kandy, the self-made tycoon dubbed "a postcolonial Gatsby" by The Globe and Mail? Read his epic story in Beggar's Feast, the new book from Randy Boyagoda, whose first novel, Governor of the Northern Province, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2006. The author behind the antihero will be at Cedarbrae branch on Thursday, October 27 at 7 p.m. to discuss his work. Don't miss this latest session of the eh List Author Series!

Plot description:

Beggar's Feast is a novel about a man who lives in defiance of fate. Sam Kandy was born in 1899 to low prospects in a Ceylon village and died one hundred years later as the wealthy headman of the same village, a self-made shipping magnate and father of sixteen, three times married and twice widowed. In four parts, this enthralling novel tells Sam's story from his boyhood—when his paren'ts, convinced by his horoscope that he would be a blight upon the family, abandon him at the gates of a distant temple—through his dramatic escape from the temple and journey across Ceylon to Australia and Singapore, before his bold return to the Ceylon village he once called home. There he tries to win recognition for his success in the world—at any cost.

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The Globe and Mail
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The Toronto Star
Maclean's