The First Sentence

The first sentence of books

[every-first-sentence]

“Monday—why was it even a day of the week?”

—The Outlaw’s Mail Order Bride, Linda Broday

[every-first-sentence]

“Death, in this forsaken place, could come in countless forms.”

-Deception Point, Dan Brown

[every-first-sentence]

“I clasp the flask between my hands even though the warmth from the tea has long since leached into the frozen air.”

-Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins

[every-first-sentence]

When I was a girl, my father told me the story of two cranes who set out to fly across the world together to fulfill their destinies.

The Commoner, John Burnham Schwartz

[every-first-sentence]

There is no lack of drama in my life, I have more than enough three-ring-circus material for writing, but even so, I always approach the seventh of January with trembling.

The Sum of Our Days, Isabel Allende

[every-first-sentence]

It was my last day of freedom.

The Jewel of Medina, Sherry Jones

[every-first-sentence]

The end of the world will arrive, say the mendicant preachers, on the first of January 1500; God can no longer bear the deeds of evil men and will strike them down.

The Scarlet Contessa, Jeanne Kalogridis

[every-first-sentence]

A hard gale blew in off the Atlantic at dusk, west by south, raising a steep, breaking sea.

Under Enemy Colors, S. Thomas Russell

[every-first-sentence]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

[every-first-sentence]

Dear sir, I have no way of knowing if this letter will reach you, as the distance between us is so very far and so very troublesome.

The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket

[every-first-sentence]

Black crape covered the windows of the house.

Liszt’s Kiss, Susanne Dunlap

[every-first-sentence]

Looking back now, I see it more as an act of pride than kindness that my father brought the young painter back with him from the North that spring.

The Birth of Venus, Sarah Dunant

[every-first-sentence]

She had been running for four days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels.

Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

[every-first-sentence]

I woke this morning with a stranger in my bed.

Falling Angels, Tracy Chevalier

[every-first-sentence]

What is art?

The Bradshaw Variations, Rachel Cusk

[every-first-sentence]

Sleeping on the roof in the summer is customary in Tehran.

Rooftops of Tehran, Mahbod Seraji

[every-first-sentence]

"He murdered his first duchess with his own hands, they say," the Ferrarese hairdressing-woman whispered as she braided a string of pearls into my hair.

The Second Duchess, Elizabeth Loupas