Depending on what you like in literature, “Aftertaste” by Daria Lavelle is either a unique speculative culinary-lit experience or a wrong turn into a back alley New York bistro that was better left alone. Definitely an acquired taste.
To be fair, it begins quite well. The story starts by following the childhood of Konstantin “Kostya” Duhovny, a poor, awkward New York City kid who lost his Russian immigrant father at a very young age. His last words to his father were those of disgust and scorn; he tells his father the family should have stayed back in the old country where Kostya could’ve been a chef, instead of a pathetic bus driver in America.
