Aftertaste: A Novel in Five Courses

“A smart, gripping novel rich with the right ingredients—an honest telling of love, anger, forgiveness and the binding power of food” (Susan Gregg Gilmore). Mira Rinaldi lives life at a rolling boil. Co-owner of Grappa, a chic New York City trattoria, she has an enviable apartment, a brand-new baby, and a frenzied schedule befitting her success. Everything changes the night she catches her husband, Jake, “wielding his whisk” with Grappa’s new maîtress d’hôtel. Mira’s fiery response earns her a court-ordered stint in anger management—and a legal and personal predicament as she battles to save her restaurant and pick up the pieces of her life. Luckily, Mira can fall back on family and friends in Pittsburgh as she struggles to find a recipe for happiness. Then, thanks to some surprising developments back in New York, she has a sudden opportunity to win back what she thought she had lost forever. For Mira, cooking has always brought pleasure in filling others’ needs. But the time has come to decide where her own fulfillment lies . . . Keenly observed and deeply satisfying, this novel is “a delicious debut” about the singular contentment that comes with living—and loving—with gusto (Jamie Cat Callan, author of French Women Don’t Sleep Alone). “There are scores of wonderful scenes of Mira either cooking up a storm or eating her way through Pittsburgh from the perfect biscotti at Bruno’s Bakery, to Italian sausages and cheese from The Pennsylvania Macaroni Factory to oversized sandwiches at Primanti Brothers (it’s enough to make you want to hop on the next plane to Pittsburgh) . . . Meredith Mileti’s debut novel is as thoughtful and poignant as it is wickedly funny. It is one to savor—recipes included.” —New York Journal of Books