Book Talk with Daria Lavelle, Author of Aftertaste
Schedule
Sat, 04 Oct, 2025 at 12:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
771 Haddon Ave., Collingswood, NJ, United States, New Jersey 08108 | Collingswood, NJ
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FREE! Main Stage, Haddon & Frazer Aves. 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. He’s 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 departed loved ones—just for one last meal. Convinced that his life’s purpose is to serve closure to grieving strangers, he sets out to open a restaurant by entering a particularly fiery ring of Hell: the New York culinary scene. But as his kitchen skills catch up with his ambitions, he’s 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.
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.
Visit the website for the full schedule and festival details.
https://www.collingswoodbookfestival.com/adult-authors-events
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Where is it happening?
771 Haddon Ave., Collingswood, NJ, United States, New Jersey 08108Event Location & Nearby Stays:
