Middle Spoon: A Novel

**“ *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 · A *Mother Jones* Best Book of the Year · 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.