21st Century Literature discussion

If you’re reading more than one book right now, just choose whichever one you want…

Share the first line in a book you are currently reading.

All the story I ever see set off with short dedication that read: for Jacob, or for Mama and Papa, or, for all my many brothers and sisters them, and then everything that come after don't have nothing to do with Jacob, and blast-all to do with any brother or sister.
Fast by the Horns by Moses McKenzie

"I spent the week before my final year began on holiday with my family." Doesn't really give much away but the novel itself is rivetting so far, Harriet Armstrong's To Rest Our Minds and Bodies

Out on the open plain, on a starless, ink-dark night, a lone man was following the highway from Marchiennes to Montsou, ten kilometers of paved road that cut directly across the fields of beet.

In the fleeting seconds of final memory, the image that will become Burma is the sun and a woman's parasol.
The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

"The story was told to me by my old tutor, Theo Parmitter, as we sat beside the fire in his college rooms one bitterly cold January night."

Can't ask for a more traditional beginning to an English ghost story than that.

A great question, Marc. All of these are good, and I may now have to read Tamara's The Piano Tuner just based on that sentence!

For mine you need the first two sentences.
"They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time."
Paradise by Toni Morrison

"To begin with, you have to walk past the African elephant and step in through the door at the back." Beasts of the Sea by Iida Turpeinen (fantastic book, much better than the opening sentence suggests :))

"This morning my mother sat in front of me, covered neck to toe in a red-checkered, black-streaked wax tablecloth we'd been using as a hairdresser cape for a few years--fastened with a binder clip, of course."

Sam wrote: ""This morning my mother sat in front of me, covered neck to toe in a red-checkered, black-streaked wax tablecloth we'd been using as a hairdresser cape for a few years--fastened with a binder clip,..."

I need to know what book this is.

Whitney wrote: "Sam wrote: ""This morning my mother sat in front of me, covered neck to toe in a red-checkered, black-streaked wax tablecloth we'd been using as a hairdresser cape for a few years--fastened with a ..."

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabih Alameddine due to be published 09/02/2025

"The small town of Verrieres may be regarded as one of the most attractive in the Franche-Conte."

The Red and the Black by Stendhal.

In-Ah has been having nightmares - from Europa by Nobel prize winner Han Kang

A convenience store is a world of sound.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Vincent is a waiter at Coffee House

Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag.

First two sentences:
My story begins on January 1, 1950. In the two years prior to that, I suffered cruel torture such as no man can imagine in the bowels of hell.
Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan Translator Howard Goldblatt

It's the pulsing I remember, not the spunk.
Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told by Jeremy Atherton Lin

Carl wrote: "It's the pulsing I remember, not the spunk.
Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told by Jeremy Atherton Lin"

This sounds promising LOL

Henk wrote: "Carl wrote: "It's the pulsing I remember, not the spunk.
Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told by Jeremy Atherton Lin"

This sounds promising LOL"

When I read this first sentence I had to re-read it to believe the audacity! I am loving it.

The Korowai Pass had been closed since the end of the summer, when a spate of shallow earthquakes triggered a landslide that buried a stretch of the highway in rubble, killing five, and sending a long-haul transport truck over a precipice where it skimmed a power line, ploughed a channel down the mountainside, and then exploded on a viaduct below.
Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood

Janet wrote: "The Korowai Pass had been closed since the end of the summer, when a spate of shallow earthquakes triggered a landslide that buried a stretch of the highway in rubble, killing five, and sending a l..."

I want to read this one. Would love to hear your thoughts after you finish it.

Carl this will be a re-read for me. Read it when it first came out a few years ago and now re-reading for my book group. Griping story, sometimes a bit over the top, nasty characters and others all too human. Read if you want to explore the intersections of vast wealth and its effect on the environment and the human soul.

Carl wrote: "Janet wrote: "The Korowai Pass had been closed since the end of the summer, when a spate of shallow earthquakes triggered a landslide that buried a stretch of the highway in rubble, killing five, a..."

You just sold it to me! And I love a nasty character. The more the merrier. Thanks!

"All day, the colors had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths"

Inheritance of Loss, The: A Novel by Kiran Desai

Damm she can write!