An unforgettable, imaginative and darkly comic debut novel about food, ghosts and the New York culinary scene An unforgettable, imaginative and darkly comic debut novel about food, ghosts and the New York culinary scene

A food story to binge. A ghost story to devour. A love story to savour. When dead-end dishwasher Kostya discovers the ability to summon spirits through the food he cooks, he embarks on a journey to open a New York City restaurant that serves closure - something he''s craved for as long as he can remember. There are just three problems: 1. Kostya has some ghosts of his own. 2. His advancing menu of spirit cuisine is threatening the stability of the Afterlife itself. 3. He''s falling in love with Maura, a party psychic with her own secret connection to the Afterlife - who also happens to be the one person who knows he must be stopped. A bittersweet cocktail of humour and heart, Aftertaste is an imaginative odyssey through food and love, life and death: the things that sustain us, connect us, transport us, and remind us who we are.

Autorentext
Daria Lavelle writes fiction, most of which features at least one impossible thing. Her stories have appeared in Dark Matter, The Deadlands and Dread Machine, among others. She holds a BA from Princeton University and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and enjoys opera, escape rooms, and checking restaurants off her bucket list. She was born in Kyiv before immigrating to the US as a child, and currently lives in New Jersey with her husband, their hyperactive golden doodle, and their three magical children. Aftertaste is her first novel.

Klappentext

A chef discovers the ability to bring spirits back from the afterlife through his food, and embarks on a journey to open a New York restaurant that serves up closure

Konstantin "Kostya? Duhhovny is a haunted man. His father passed away shortly after they immigrated to Brooklyn from Ukraine, and ghosts have been hovering around Kostya ever since. He can't see them, but his mouth will often flood with the tastes of meals he's never consumed, and Kostya understands that this is how they haunt him.

Keeping to himself has served him well for most of his life, but on the night when Kostya decides to let the phantom flavors guide his hand, everything changes. Suddenly, his unique gift presents him with a path: to use his ability to reunite ghosts with the living for a last meal, and open a restaurant that serves customers the closure he himself so desperately craves.

But as his kitchen skills begin to catch up with his ambitions, Kostya cannot see the catastrophe that looms. The one person who knows that Kostya must be stopped, also happens to be falling in love with him - and feeding hungry spirits may cost him the life and love he's found along the way.

Aftertaste is at once an exquisitely written epic love story, a dark comedy, and a synesthetic adventure through food and grief.