Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle Summary, Characters and Themes
Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle is a richly imaginative novel that follows Konstantin “Kostya” Duhovny, a young man of Russian-Ukrainian immigrant roots living in New York, who possesses an extraordinary, supernatural ability: he can taste the lingering essence of the dead through food connected to them. This unique gift, called clairgustance, allows him to experience memories and emotions of those who have passed on, creating a deeply personal, though isolating, link between life and death.
As Kostya grows from a lonely boy into a chef with a troubled past and uncertain future, he navigates grief, identity, and the challenge of embracing a power that blurs the boundary between the living world and the afterlife. The story explores the immigrant experience, familial love, loss, and the mysterious, sometimes dangerous, intersections of memory and taste.
Summary
Konstantin “Kostya” Duhovny grows up in Brighton Beach, New York, the son of Russian-Ukrainian immigrants, grappling with poverty, cultural isolation, and the loss of his father. At eleven years old, Kostya is painfully aware of his social loneliness and his father’s absence after death.
One day at the public pool, excluded by other boys, Kostya suddenly experiences a strange new taste—chicken liver with onions and dill, a dish called pechonka, which he never ate but recognizes as his father’s favorite. This taste awakens a haunting connection to his deceased father, sparking a bittersweet desire for closeness across the divide of death.
Before his death, Kostya’s father had attempted to pass down their heritage through a tasting game involving traditional Russian dishes. However, the pressures of immigrant life, work, and family tensions—exacerbated by Kostya’s own angry outburst blaming his father for their hardships—fractured their relationship.
After his father’s passing, Kostya is left to face his grief largely alone, his mother retreating into silence and struggle. On Kostya’s birthday months later, a flower delivery from his father arrives posthumously, deepening Kostya’s feelings of loss.
He secretly steals a Kyiv Torte cake to soothe the emptiness, but the sweetness can’t fill the void.
As Kostya ages, he continues to encounter these “aftertastes”—ghostly flavors that appear unexpectedly on his palate, connected to various deceased individuals. These sensations grow stronger but also more isolating, as no one believes his claims, not even his superstitious mother.
The intensity of these experiences leads to a psychiatric hospitalization where Kostya is medicated and urged to deny his unusual abilities, a process that only deepens his alienation. Despite these challenges, Kostya’s gift remains, continuing to influence key moments of his life—his mother’s battles with addiction, his own heartbreaks, and the everyday struggles of a young man caught between two worlds.
In adulthood, Kostya works as a dishwasher at a speakeasy called The Library of Spirits. One night, when a distraught customer named Charlie Katzowsky orders a drink, Kostya improvises a cocktail inspired by an aftertaste.
This act inadvertently summons the ghost of Charlie’s deceased wife, Anna, who appears as a glowing apparition. This event reveals the true extent of Kostya’s power: he can momentarily bring the dead back to the living world through food and drink.
Intrigued but cautious, Kostya seeks out Madame Everleigh, a psychic who confirms that his clairgustance is rare and warns him of the dangers of meddling with the dead, urging restraint and caution.
Despite these warnings, Kostya is driven by a need to understand his gift and give it purpose. A spirit tries to communicate through the flavor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, compelling Kostya to listen more closely.
His best friend Frankie encourages him to embrace his ability, reminding Kostya that this gift could bring healing and meaning to others suffering loss.
Kostya’s culinary journey leads him to Saveur Fare, a prestigious three-Michelin-starred restaurant in New York, where he starts as a dishwasher but quickly moves up. Though inexperienced, Kostya’s ability to detect and recreate complex flavors captivates the chef Michel Beauchêne.
Kostya’s unique gift offers subtle insights that enrich the kitchen’s artistry. During a high-pressure holiday event, Kostya is asked to manage the saucier station.
Here, he experiences another aftertaste—his father’s favorite dish—but a harsh reprimand and a kitchen accident cause physical injury and emotional trauma, pushing Kostya away from the fine dining world.
Seeking his own path, Kostya opens the Hell’s Kitchen Supper Club in his apartment, where he invites diners to share memories of lost loved ones. He attempts to summon the spirits through food, sometimes succeeding—such as when Sister Louise reunites with Sister Stacy’s ghost—but often confronting failure and financial strain.
Through these meals, Kostya becomes a conduit for others’ grief and healing, transforming his gift into a ritual of remembrance and closure.
Later, Kostya becomes involved in a culinary competition where a fellow chef, Volière, tries to fool judges with a dish using endangered birds disguised as another species. Kostya challenges the concept of authenticity, proposing that such deceptions be framed as “inspired reinventions.” This stance earns him cautious respect but also highlights the tension between culinary tradition and innovation.
Kostya’s reputation grows, and he is recruited by a wealthy Russian entrepreneur, Viktor Musizchka, to develop a restaurant venture promising a fusion of food and spirit experiences. The restaurant is located in a run-down 1970s hotel above an abandoned subway station, an unlikely but fitting setting for Kostya’s haunted cuisine.
Here, Kostya deepens a relationship with Maura, a woman mourning her sister Everleigh. Together, they summon Everleigh’s spirit using sensory cues, leading to moments of healing but also danger: some ghosts become trapped, unable to return to the afterlife, growing restless and threatening the fragile boundary between worlds.
As more spirits become bound to Kostya’s cooking, the situation escalates into crisis. The restaurant becomes flooded with “Hungry Dead,” chaotic ghosts tethered to the living world through Kostya’s dishes.
Kostya learns that the spirits’ growing hunger intensifies the threat. With the help of Maura and his friend Frankie, Kostya must undertake a perilous journey into the Afterlife itself.
Using a combination of pufferfish poison and hypothermia, he induces a near-death state to enter a surreal food court where memories and meals intertwine.
Inside the Afterlife’s Food Hall, Kostya cooks dishes drawn from his own fading memories, feeding trapped spirits and helping them find peace. This process slowly erases parts of his identity and life essence.
He confronts his grief over his father and seeks forgiveness, gradually finding acceptance and release. Meanwhile, Maura works to seal the veil between the worlds, fighting to prevent further chaos.
In the final moments, Kostya sacrifices his remaining memories and self to free Maura, allowing her to return fully to life. He accepts that he must remain in the Afterlife to continue aiding lost souls.
The novel closes on the idea that food carries memory, love, and identity—how the living use it to remember, and the dead use it to forget and find rest.
Through Kostya’s journey—from a lonely immigrant boy tasting ghostly flavors to a chef bridging worlds—Aftertaste explores grief, cultural heritage, and the mysterious power of food to connect the living with those who have passed on.
Characters
Konstantin Duhovny (Kostya)
Konstantin Duhovny, known as Kostya, is the deeply complex protagonist whose journey forms the emotional and supernatural core of the narrative. Born to Russian-Ukrainian immigrant parents and raised in Brighton Beach, New York, Kostya wrestles with profound grief after the early death of his father, a loss that not only leaves a void in his family but also sparks his unique psychic ability to taste the memories of the dead through food—a rare gift called clairgustance.
This power manifests as “aftertastes,” ghostly flavors tied to deceased individuals, which isolate Kostya socially and emotionally, as no one around him, including his superstitious mother, truly believes in or understands his experiences. Kostya’s relationship with food is deeply symbolic; through cooking, he attempts to bridge the living and the dead, seeking both connection and closure.
His early life is marked by alienation, poverty, and cultural tension, compounded by bullying and his mother’s withdrawal into addiction. As Kostya matures, his culinary path—from dishwasher to fine dining chef, and finally to the owner of a supper club devoted to summoning spirits—reflects his struggle to reconcile his heritage, trauma, and supernatural calling.
His character is layered with pain and passion, often caught between hope and despair, as he navigates the dangerous consequences of meddling with the afterlife. Kostya’s journey is ultimately one of redemption and sacrifice, marked by a poignant acceptance of loss and the transcendent power of memory conveyed through taste.
Frankie
Frankie serves as Kostya’s steadfast friend and grounding influence throughout the story. A passionate cook in his own right, Frankie is both a source of practical support and emotional encouragement, reminding Kostya of his unique gift’s value and the potential it holds beyond personal grief.
Unlike Kostya, who is haunted by doubts and trauma, Frankie represents resilience and loyalty, pushing Kostya to embrace his culinary and psychic abilities despite the risks involved. His friendship provides Kostya with a semblance of normalcy and camaraderie in a world otherwise fraught with isolation and supernatural burden.
Frankie’s presence also underscores themes of friendship and loyalty amidst hardship, embodying the idea that connection can be a powerful antidote to loneliness.
Maura (Madame Everleigh)
Maura, also known as Madame Everleigh, is a complex figure who blends mystery, grief, and insight. As a psychic and a mourner of her sister Everleigh’s death, Maura introduces Kostya to the deeper, darker realities of clairgustance and the dangers inherent in raising spirits from beyond.
Her harsh but honest counsel challenges Kostya to confront his fear and denial about his abilities, warning him of the precarious balance between the living and the dead that must not be recklessly disturbed. Maura’s own grief and vulnerability create a poignant parallel to Kostya’s, and their evolving romantic relationship, symbolized through shared meals like the traditional Ukrainian varenyky, deepens the narrative’s emotional resonance.
She embodies both caution and passion, supporting Kostya’s mission while also highlighting the peril of becoming consumed by the supernatural world. Through Maura, themes of mourning, healing, and the complexities of love intertwined with loss are richly explored.
Viktor Musizchka
Viktor Musizchka is an enigmatic and morally ambiguous character who brings a business-minded yet shadowy element to Kostya’s journey. As a wealthy Russian entrepreneur with a criminal background, Viktor’s involvement introduces tension between artistic or spiritual integrity and commercial ambition.
He recruits Kostya to join a restaurant venture promising to fuse culinary art with the supernatural spectacle of summoning spirits, tempting Kostya with the promise of success and recognition. Viktor’s denial of the dangers posed by the restless ghosts and his insistence on keeping the restaurant open amid escalating chaos mark him as a foil to Kostya’s growing awareness and responsibility.
His intimidation tactics and pragmatic ruthlessness underscore conflicts between power, greed, and conscience within the story’s exploration of legacy and cultural identity.
Everleigh
Everleigh is Maura’s deceased sister, a ghost bound to Kostya’s supernatural influence. She serves as both a personal connection to Maura’s grief and a tangible representation of the story’s central conflict with the restless dead.
Everleigh’s presence reveals the unintended consequences of Kostya’s gift: while his cooking can summon spirits and offer moments of reunion, it can also trap these souls, preventing them from moving on. Her character personifies the tension between the living’s desire to hold onto memories and the dead’s need for release.
Everleigh’s eventual entrapment and plea for help catalyze Kostya’s acceptance of the dangerous price his abilities exact, symbolizing the burdens that come with tampering in realms beyond human control.
Sister Louise and Sister Stacy
Sister Louise and Sister Stacy are minor but poignant characters whose supernatural encounter at Kostya’s supper club highlights the healing potential of his gift. Sister Louise’s reunion with Sister Stacy’s spirit through Kostya’s cooking illustrates how food serves as a ritual of remembrance and connection, offering closure and comfort to the living.
Their interaction adds depth to the narrative’s exploration of faith, memory, and the intangible bonds that persist beyond death. Through their story, the novel emphasizes the communal and spiritual dimensions of food as a bridge between worlds.
Michel Beauchêne
Michel Beauchêne, the executive chef at Saveur Fare, represents the rigorous, competitive world of fine dining that Kostya enters. His initial skepticism and eventual grudging respect for Kostya’s unique palate and culinary intuition mirror Kostya’s internal struggle for acceptance and mastery.
Beauchêne’s harsh reprimand and the kitchen accident that results in Kostya’s serious burn symbolize the brutal realities of professional cooking and the emotional toll it exacts. Michel embodies tradition, discipline, and the challenges of navigating hierarchical power structures, which contrast with Kostya’s more intuitive and spiritual approach to cuisine.
Themes
Grief and Loss
Grief permeates every corner of Aftertaste, driving much of Kostya’s emotional landscape and the narrative’s core tension. The story captures the complex ways grief manifests, especially through the sensory experience of taste.
Kostya’s supernatural ability to “taste” the presence and memories of the dead creates a visceral, intimate connection to loss that is deeply personal yet also universal. His longing for his deceased father is not just emotional but embodied through flavors and dishes tied to memories, reflecting how grief can be experienced physically and psychologically.
The book shows grief as multifaceted—marked by denial, anger, guilt, and yearning—as Kostya struggles with unresolved feelings of abandonment, compounded by his immigrant family’s hardships. Grief isolates him from peers and even his mother, emphasizing how mourning can separate individuals socially as well as emotionally.
Yet the narrative also explores grief as a catalyst for growth and meaning. Through his culinary gift, Kostya begins to transform his sorrow into a purpose, helping others confront and reconcile their losses.
The presence of ghosts through “aftertastes” symbolizes the persistence of memory and the difficulty of letting go, while the eventual acceptance Kostya achieves by reconnecting with his father’s spirit represents a form of healing and closure. Ultimately, grief in Aftertaste is portrayed not simply as pain to overcome but as an enduring bond that shapes identity and invites empathy across generations and even beyond death.
Immigrant Identity and Cultural Heritage
The immigrant experience is woven tightly into Kostya’s story, shaping his sense of self and his relationship with food. His Russian-Ukrainian heritage, embodied in traditional dishes like pechonka and varenyky, serves as a tangible link to his family history and cultural roots amid the alienation of immigrant life in Brighton Beach.
Food becomes a vessel for preserving identity and memory in a world where Kostya feels marginalized and misunderstood. The narrative captures the tensions of assimilation and cultural preservation, as Kostya navigates a landscape where his heritage is both a source of pride and a marker of otherness.
His father’s attempt to pass down Russian culinary traditions before dying highlights the fragility of cultural transmission amid economic hardship and social pressures. Kostya’s “aftertaste” gift intensifies this connection, allowing the dead to speak through flavors tied to their origins, thus making cultural memory a living presence.
The story also highlights the struggles immigrants face—poverty, bullying, and alienation—showing how these external forces compound Kostya’s internal conflicts. Yet, the culinary journey Kostya embarks upon in New York’s fine dining scene also reflects an evolving identity, blending old world traditions with new world possibilities.
This tension between honoring the past and forging a new path is at the heart of Kostya’s experience, illustrating how immigrant identity is complex, layered, and in constant negotiation.
Isolation and Alienation
Kostya’s life is marked by profound isolation, both social and existential, underscoring a theme of alienation that permeates Aftertaste. From childhood, he is excluded and bullied, separated from peers who do not understand his gift or his grief.
The death of his father and his mother’s withdrawal deepen his solitude, leaving him emotionally adrift in a world where he feels invisible. The supernatural nature of his ability further alienates him; his “clairgustance” is met with disbelief and suspicion, including psychiatric hospitalization, reinforcing his status as an outsider.
Even as Kostya grows older and gains some acceptance in elite culinary circles, his uniqueness remains a source of division, as the gap between his internal world and others’ perceptions widens. This alienation is not only social but metaphysical: Kostya inhabits the space between the living and the dead, tethered to spirits through taste, never fully belonging in either realm.
The isolation extends into his romantic relationship with Maura, whose grief mirrors his own but who also represents a fragile bridge to connection. Yet even love is haunted by the spirits that bind them, emphasizing the difficulty of intimacy when one carries unseen burdens.
The novel portrays alienation as a profound condition born of trauma, difference, and loss, but also hints at the possibility of connection through shared experience, ritual, and the transformative power of food.
The Supernatural and the Power of Memory
Supernatural elements in Aftertaste function not just as fantastical devices but as metaphors for memory, trauma, and the persistence of the past in the present. Kostya’s clairgustance—a rare ability to taste the dead’s memories through food—externalizes the idea that memory is multisensory and often involuntary.
This gift blurs boundaries between life and death, reality and the spiritual, suggesting that the past remains alive in tangible ways. Food, here, is a medium that conveys stories and emotions, allowing the dead to communicate with the living and forcing Kostya to confront unresolved histories.
The aftertastes evoke both comfort and pain, reflecting memory’s dual nature as source of identity and burden. The narrative explores the consequences of disturbing the natural order; summoning spirits risks trapping them in limbo and threatening the veil between worlds.
This tension underscores how memory can be both a source of connection and entrapment. Kostya’s journey into the Afterlife’s Food Hall, where memories are cooked into meals, literalizes the act of transforming and sometimes sacrificing parts of oneself to reconcile with the past.
The supernatural is thus inseparable from the emotional and psychological; it reveals the deep human need to remember, honor, and sometimes release what is gone. The book suggests that memory, like food, nourishes but can also haunt, making the supernatural a poignant expression of grief, love, and redemption.
Redemption, Sacrifice, and Healing Through Culinary Art
The narrative traces a redemptive arc grounded in the physical and spiritual act of cooking, positioning culinary art as a means of healing and transformation. Kostya’s initial relationship with food is fraught with pain—his attempts to recreate his father’s dishes are intertwined with guilt, loss, and yearning.
However, as he matures and hones his craft, cooking becomes a form of agency that allows him to engage with his past and others’ suffering. His supper club and eventual restaurant symbolize a space where culinary skill intersects with spiritual purpose, offering solace to the living and the dead.
The act of preparing food for ghosts and mourners is ritualistic, a performance of love and remembrance that transcends conventional gastronomy. Kostya’s willingness to sacrifice memories and ultimately his own life force to release trapped spirits reflects a profound generosity and acceptance of responsibility.
His journey shows that healing is not linear but requires courage, selflessness, and confronting pain head-on. The relationship with Maura and the support from friends illustrate how connection and community aid redemption.
The story elevates cooking beyond sustenance or artistry; it becomes a sacred language through which identity, memory, and forgiveness are expressed. Kostya’s final transformation from haunted boy to self-aware chef who nourishes both the living and the dead emphasizes the potential for renewal and meaning through sacrifice and creativity.
Friendship, Loyalty, and Human Connection
Throughout Kostya’s turbulent life, friendship emerges as a stabilizing and nurturing force, emphasizing the human need for loyalty and understanding amid chaos. Frankie, Kostya’s steadfast friend and fellow cook, embodies this theme by encouraging Kostya to embrace his gift and reminding him of his worth when doubt and despair threaten to overwhelm him.
Their relationship highlights the importance of solidarity in the face of alienation, providing Kostya with a sense of belonging that counters the isolation inflicted by grief and the supernatural. Loyalty also manifests in the way Kostya supports Maura and others who share their own wounds and losses.
These bonds, often forged over shared meals and memories, offer a counterbalance to the story’s darker elements, showing how connection can provide hope and strength. The narrative acknowledges the fragility and complexity of human relationships, especially when burdened by trauma and the uncanny, but it also celebrates moments of tenderness and mutual care.
Friendship serves as a grounding force that allows Kostya to continue his difficult journey, suggesting that healing and redemption are not solitary paths but communal endeavors rooted in empathy and commitment.