Bharati Mukherjee's short story "The Middleman" was originally included in her second collection of short fiction, The Middleman and Other Stories, which won the 1988 Book Critics Circle Award for best fiction. "The Middleman" is told from the perspective of Alfie Judah, an Iraqi immigrant to the U.S. who is a "middleman" for illegal arms deals to rebel armies in an unnamed Latin American country. Alfie is staying at the home of Clovis Ransome, a trader in illegal goods. When Ransome leaves for the day, Alfie is asked to drive Ransome's wife, Maria, on an errand. He takes her to the nearby headquarters of a group of guerilla fighters where Maria meets up with her lover Andreas. Alfie eventually becomes a "middleman" in a conflict between Andreas and Ransome over Maria, during which Maria shoots Ransome but spares Alfie.

"The Middleman" focuses on several themes common throughout Mukherjee's fiction. Alfie is an immigrant with a tenuous U.S. citizenship who has become caught up in the shadier side of American imperialism and capitalist enterprise. His lust for Maria is in part an attraction to a fellow darkskinned person, although they are from two completely different cultures. Alfie is ultimately a character who survives in a multicultural setting in which he always finds himself as the "middleman" in business, political, and romantic conflicts.