Middle Spoon

<b>“<i>Middle Spoon</i> subverts the ordinary novel with intelligence and vulnerability. . . . Varela has made a sly, analytical opera of the heart.” —Andrew Sean Greer, author of <i>Less </i>and <i>Less Is Lost</i><br> <br>“A rollicking delight! . . . Varela asks provocative questions about the shape of family and the nature of love.” —Ada Calhoun, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Crush</i><br> <br>Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize · A <i>Mother Jones </i>Best Book of the Year · One of <i>Today</i>’s 50 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2025 · Named a Must-Read Book of Fall 2025 by <i>Town & Country, W Magazine</i>, and more<br> <br>A whip-smart, blazingly funny novel about heartbreak, unconventional love, and the way society could be, from National Book Award finalist Alejandro Varela</b><br><br>The narrator of <i>Middle Spoon</i> 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.<br><br>With a big heart and just the right dose of the anxieties that define the modern era, <i>Middle Spoon</i> 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, <i>Middle Spoon </i>is for anyone who has longed, nursed a broken heart, or grappled with love at its messiest.