TCL’s First Lines Friday #5 for April 21, 2023!

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers that was originally hosted by Emma @ (the apparently, now defunct) Wandering Words (don’t click on the link, it isn’t there anymore).

However, the lovely Carrie @ Reading is My Superpower not only does a similar weekly meme, she also hosts a weekly link party to go with it! So, if you decide to do one of these yourself, you might want to join her link party as well!

I’ve seen this on several blogs over the years, and as you can see, some of my fellow bloggers are still doing it,  in various formats. I don’t have a book review for today (and not even a DNF to tell you about), so I’m joining in. I’m going to continue using the original format, whose premise was (and I guess still is):

What if, instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? To participate, you only need to do three things:

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read, one you read long ago, or one on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

Simple, right? So, without any further ado…

Here are the opening paragraphs…

The Last Words on Earth

When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day. It will say, LEO GURSKY IS SURVIVED BY AN APARTMENT FULL OF SHIT. I’m surprised I haven’t been buried alive. The place isn’t big. I have to struggle to keep a path clear between bed and toilet, toilet and kitchen table, kitchen table and front door. If I want to get from the toilet to the front door, impossible, I have to go by way of the kitchen table. I have to imagine the bed as home plate, the toilet as first, the kitchen table as second, the front door as third: should the doorbell ring while I’m lying in bed, I have to round the toilet and the kitchen table in order to arrive at the door. If it happens to be Bruno, I let him in without a word and then jog back to bed, the roar of the invisible crowd ringing in my ears.

Do these first lines intrigue you? Here, take a look at the Goodreads blurb, and maybe this will help:

Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother’s loneliness. Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author.

Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the lost love who, sixty years ago in Poland, inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn’t know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives…

Still stumped? Do you want to know what book this is from? If so, please scroll down to find out…

Have you guessed that this is from “The History of Love” by Nicole Krauss? Now I’m guessing you probably still don’t know the book or the author, but when this novel was released, it was a HUGE hit, and made Krauss into an international best-selling author. It was also the book that made me a fan of Krauss’ writing, and so far, I’ve read all of her fiction works. You can read my review of this book here.