Middle Spoon

A Novel

De: Alejandro Varela

Narrado por: Eddie Lopez

“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

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, Lit Hub, and W Magazine

A whipsmart, 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.

©2025 Alejandro Varela (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Nothing gets away from Alejandro Varela; every thought and detail, emotion and memory is taken apart to the atoms. The result is obsessive, explosive, heartbreaking, funny, and brilliant. Middle Spoon subverts the ordinary novel with intelligence and vulnerability, and with its arias of love and choruses of doubt, Varela has made a sly, analytical opera of the heart.”—Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less and Less Is Lost

“What a beautiful, timely novel. From the very first page, I found myself exhaling—awed by Varela’s sharp wit, originality, and the extraordinary care and intensity he brings to every sentence. He truly leaves it all on the page.”—Jacqueline Woodson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Remember Us

“Nobody but Varela could pull off this decidedly modern examination of polyamory, family, individual neurosis, and pop culture. A multifaceted gem of a novel.”—Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe

The most insufferable protagonist

This novel is told entirely from the perspective of the most insufferable protagonists I’ve encountered in many years of reading. He is snobbish, nit-picking, overly critical, self-involved, narcissistic, virtue-signaling, good-taste-signaling, spoiled, paranoid and hypocritical. He also has more time, energy and freedom to conduct a romantic relationship outside his marriage than any parent of school-age children I’ve ever known in real life. The narrator of the audiobook does the best he can with this awful material.