Monster in the Middle: A Novel

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF FALL 2021 BY: 
NEW YORK TIMES ● VULTURE ● BOSTON GLOBE ● OPRAH DAILY
SHEREADS ● KIRKUS REVIEWS ● HEY ALMA ● LITHUB ● AND MORE

“Reveals on every page how love can persevere and take shape over time and space.”—Boston Globe

“One of the most inventive and talented stylists of her generation.” —Vulture

From the award-winning author of Land of Love and Drowning, an electric new novel that maps the emotional inheritance of one couple newly in love.

When Fly and Stela meet in 21st Century New York City, it seems like fate. He’s a Black American musician from a mixed-religious background who knows all about heartbreak. She’s a Catholic science teacher from the Caribbean, looking for lasting love. But are they meant to be? The answer goes back decades—all the way to their parents’ earliest loves.

Vibrant and emotionally riveting, Monster in the Middle moves across decades, from the U.S. to the Virgin Islands to Ghana and back again, to show how one couple’s romance is intrinsically influenced by the family lore and love stories that preceded their own pairing. What challenges and traumas must this new couple inherit, what hopes and ambitions will keep them moving forward? Exploring desire and identity, religion and class, passion and obligation, the novel posits that in order to answer the question “who are we meant to be with?” we must first understand who we are and how we came to be.