Daria Lavelle – författare

‘Part ghost story, part gastro romance ... and lashings of bittersweet humour' Mail on Sunday'A fun romp through New York’s restaurant scene and the world of the undead’ The Sunday Times'[The] answer to last year’s cult hit Butter' The Bookseller 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.‘Practically exploding with love, life and flavour’ LOUISE KENNEDY‘Bitingly inventive, written with humour and heart’ ELIZABETH DAY‘A hauntingly evocative journey through the realms of pain, pleasure and the power of food’ NIGELLA LAWSON

‘Part ghost story, part gastro romance ... and lashings of bittersweet humour' Mail on Sunday'A fun romp through New York’s restaurant scene and the world of the undead’ The Sunday Times'[The] answer to last year’s cult hit Butter' The Bookseller 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.‘Practically exploding with love, life and flavour’ LOUISE KENNEDY‘Bitingly inventive, written with humour and heart’ ELIZABETH DAY‘A hauntingly evocative journey through the realms of pain, pleasure and the power of food’ NIGELLA LAWSON

‘A fun romp through New York’s restaurant scene and the world of the undead’ Sunday TimesKostya is haunted. Still reeling from the loss of his father, he’s working as a dishwasher when he discovers something extraordinary. The tastes that have flooded his mouth without warning since childhood – thin-skinned dumplings bursting with lightly sugared sour cherries – are being sent by spirits seeking closure and, by cooking their food, Kostya can bring them back for one last meal to find it.Maura is moonlighting as a psychic when a man with curious talents enters her booth. She’s the only one who understands what Kostya is really capable of – as well as the consequences of messing with the afterlife. And as Kostya and Maura fall deeply, irresistibly in love, the line between supporting his dreams and keeping her own ghosts at bay begins to blur.While Kostya and his best friend, Frankie, work towards opening a New York restaurant with a unique menu and unprecedented clientele, Maura senses a supernatural catastrophe looming that could see them losing everything…