Monday, September 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
 CLICK HERE TO RSVP _**RSVP is recommended but not required. Entry and seating are first-come, first-served. RSVPs do not guarantee entry to a full event.**_ **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. **Alejandro Varela**’s (he/him) 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 one of _Publishers Weekly_’s best works of fiction in 2023, a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards, and longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, The Story Prize, and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. Varela, who is based in New York, is an editor-at-large of _Apogee Journal_ and holds a master’s in public health from the University of Washington.