Beginner's pluck: Full-time writer and mother Daria Lavelle
'I was an imaginative child,' she says. 'I invented stories and games, and at 15, I started writing seriously.'
She won some teenage writing awards for short stories, and had a play performed when she was at college.
'From the start my writing had a speculative element, of fantasy and magic.'
Daria worked in advertising as a brand strategist for 10 years, but she didn't stop writing.
I continuously wrote novels. An agent sent out two YA novels, but they died.
She started writing Aftertaste in 2019.
'It was my thesis project,' she says. 'During the MFA they matched students with agents. Lucy Carson showed great passion about the novel.'
It has sold to 15 territories, and the movie rights sold to Sony.
Who is Daria Lavelle?
Date/ place of birth: 1987/ Kyiv, Ukraine. 'I was 2 when we emigrated.'
Education: Public school in New Jersey; Princeton University, creative writing and comparative literature; Sarah Lawrence College, New York, MFA in fine arts in writing with a speculative fiction focus.
Home: New Jersey.
Family: Husband James, twins aged 7, and an 18-month-old. A golden Doodle, Stanley.
The day job: Full-time writer and mother.
In another life: 'Writing is something in my soul. But I'd love to experience film or TV.'
Favourite writers: Karen Russell; Erin Morgenstern; Kelly Link; Amy Bender; Anthony Bourdain; VE Schwab; Jennifer Egan.
Second book: 'I'm working on it.'
Top tip: 'You have to build a whole world, with tools to help the reader immerse themselves in the novel.'
Website: www.darialavelle.com.
Instagram: @daria.lavelle.author.
The debut
Aftertaste
Bloomsbury, €17.99
While dishwashing in a restaurant, Kostya mixes a cocktail and discovers his ability to summon spirits through the food he cooks.
Rising through the culinary ranks, he starts to connect the living with the dead through his cooking.
But it's a dangerous game, that threatens the stability of the afterlife — not to mention Kostya's love life — with the psychic, Maura.
Full of ghosts, and delectable food, this novel explores life, death, love, and friendship, but mostly the effects of grief, and the difficulty of finding closure.
The verdict: A gourmet delight. Highly original and hugely evocative, it definitely tugs at the heartstrings.
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