Alejandro Varela’s work has appeared in Boston Review, The Yale Review, The Georgia Review, Harper’s Magazine, and The Offing, among other publications. His debut novel, The Town of Babylon, was a Finalist for the National Book Award. His short-story collection, The People Who Report More Stress, was a finalist for the International Latino Book Award and longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, the Story Prize, and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. Varela holds a master’s in public health from the University of Washington. His new novel is Middle Spoon.
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Alejandro Varela
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Middle Spoon: A Novel
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.
