“ Middle Spoon subverts the ordinary novel with intelligence and vulnerability. . . . Varela
has made a sly analytical opera of the heart.” —Andrew Sean Greer author of Less and Less Is
Lost “A rollicking delight! . . . Varela asks provocative questions about the shape of
family and the nature of love.” —Ada Calhoun New York Times bestselling author of Crush
Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize · One of Today ’s 50 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in
2025 · Named a Must-Read Book of Fall 2025 by Town & Country W Magazine and more A
whip-smart blazingly funny novel about heartbreak unconventional love and the way society
could be from National Book Award finalist Alejandro Varela The narrator of Middle Spoon
appears to be living the dream: He has a doting husband two precocious children all the
comforts of a quiet bourgeois life—and a sexy younger boyfriend to accompany him to farmers
markets and cocktail parties. But when his boyfriend abruptly dumps him he spirals into
heartbreak for the first time and must confront a world still struggling to understand
polyamorous relationships. Faced with the judgment of friends and the sting of rejection he’s
left to wonder if sharing a life with both his family and his lover could ever truly be
possible. With a big heart and just the right dose of the anxieties that define the modern era
Middle Spoon skewers the unspoken rules we still live by—from taboos around intimacy to the
shortcomings of Oscar season pop culture and gluten-free food—offering a surprising
perspective on love loss and reinvention. Equal parts heart-wrenching and uproariously funny
Middle Spoon is for anyone who has longed nursed a broken heart or grappled with love at its
messiest.
