Review: Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle

The front cover of this book asks, if you could have one last meal with someone you’ve loved and lost, would you? But this is not the sweet, heartwarming story this query might imply. It is a much harder, darker story than that.

Kostya Duhovny, the only child of Ukrainian immigrant parents, loses his father unexpectedly when he’s 10. This tragic and terrible loss changes him forever. Only months after his father’s death, Kostya has his first “aftertaste,” tasting something he hasn’t eaten, something, a dish, a meal, a drink, that brings with it the potent memory of a lost loved one. Kostya’s first “aftertaste” is a meal associated with his father. And then he starts to have “aftertastes” around other people, including perfect strangers. This gift/curse confuses, frustrates, and alarms him until it eventually mostly recedes into the framework of his life. Personally, he is adrift and floundering, working as a bartender when, one night, a patron comes in at the eleventh hour and tells Kostya to make him a drink. Kostya decides to make the drink he tastes in the “aftertaste” the man is accompanied by. Something magical happens. The “aftertaste” drink summons the man’s lost person for him and eventually a business is born for Kostya, literally invoking ghosts through memories and taste buds. Kostya’s strange talent earns him a girlfriend, a successful livelihood, and a measure of fame. But even as he gets more adept at cooking these memory dishes that conjure the dead, something more sinister is occurring beyond his notice, something that must be reckoned with, no matter what the cost.

This is a book about grief and love and the longing that death cannot conquer. The premise is unique and engaging and every time the reader thinks they know where the book is going, Lavelle turns them around. For reasons unknown to me, I feel shades of Somewhere in Time (the book, not as much the movie) here. The two books share a sensibility somehow. This book takes you on an unexpected journey, with revelation after revelation reframing the characters and the plot as you read on.