Earlier post:
An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.
—Stephen King
Why Stephen King Spends ‘Months and Even Years’ Writing Opening Sentences
The openings of these five novels so obviously invite the reader into the story that they need no explanations.
1. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”
2. No Second Chance by Harlan Coben
“When the first bullet hit my chest, I thought of my daughter.”
3. In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming
“It was one hell of a night to throw away a baby.”
4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, trans. by Gregory Rabassa
“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”
5. Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller
“Gil Coleman looked down from the first-floor window of the bookshop and saw his dead wife standing on the pavement below.”
How about you?
What novel introductions have you found irresistible?
© 2019 by Mary Daniels Brown
