Daria Lavelle- Aftertaste (Podcast Interview)

In her dazzling debut novel Aftertaste, Daria Lavelle takes us on a sensory journey where food, grief, & romance intertwine in this inventive ghost story.

What if you could taste the ghosts of the people you’ve lost? In this intimate conversation, Daria shares how her Ukrainian heritage, her childhood food memories, and her love of genre-bending storytelling all shaped one of the most unique novels of the year- Aftertaste.

You’ll love the reveals of how this story took on surprising symbolism, the genre challenges of marketing such a unique book, and the reader stories that have stayed with her long after her tour ended.

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In our warm conversation, Daria and I discussed:

Identifying The Taste of Ghosts– How she discovered the idea of “clairgustance,” the psychic ability to taste the favorite foods of the dead, and transformed it into a fully fleshed-out magic system for her story.
Weaving In Her Cultural Identity– From the “stinky lunchbox” moments of childhood to the joy and shame often tied to food in immigrant families, Daria shares how her own memories informed the emotional heartbeat of Aftertaste.
Cinematic Writing & What’s Next– With Sony Pictures developing Aftertaste for film, Daria talks about writing with cinematic flair and the thrill of seeing her work move to the screen.

Aftertaste Book Summary

What if you could have one last meal with someone you’ve loved, someone you’ve lost? Combining the magic of Under the Whispering Door with the high-stakes culinary world of Sweetbitter, Aftertaste is an epic love story, a dark comedy, and a synesthetic adventure through food and grief.

A food story to binge.
A ghost story to devour.
A love story to savor.

Konstantin Duhovny is a haunted man. His father died when he was ten, and ghosts have been hovering around him ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. Flavors of meals he’s never eaten will flood his mouth,a sign that a spirit is present. Kostya has kept these aftertastes a secret for most of his life, but one night, he decides to act on what he’s tasting. And everything changes.

Kostya discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones—at least for the length of time it takes them to eat a dish that he’s prepared. He thinks his life’s purpose might be to offer closure to grieving strangers, and sets out to learn all he can by entering a particularly fiery ring of Hell: the New York culinary scene. But as his kitchen skills catch up with his ambitions, Kostya is too blind to see the catastrophe looming in the Afterlife. And the one person who knows Kostya must be stopped also happens to be falling in love with him.

Set in the bustling world of New York restaurants and teeming with mouthwatering food writing, Aftertaste is a whirlwind romance, a heart-wrenching look at love and loss, and a ghost story about all the ways we hunger—and how far we’d go to find satisfaction.

Meet Daria Lavelle

Daria Lavelle is an American fiction writer. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and raised in the New York metro area, her work explores themes of identity and belonging through magic and the uncanny. Her short stories have appeared in The Deadlands, Dread Machine, and elsewhere, and she holds degrees in writing from Princeton University and Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, children, and goldendoodle, all of whom love a great meal almost as much as she does.

How Aftertaste Lands the Genre-Bending Magic

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Daria Lavelle- Aftertaste (Podcast Interview)

Aftertaste Book Summary

How Aftertaste Lands the Genre-Bending Magic

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