Opening Sentences: Recently Published Books

Opening Sentences From Recently Published Books

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They rose up like men.
Home
Toni Morrison, 2012 MORE

I’m going to begin by telling you about Mrs. Frost
In One Person
John Irving, 2012 MORE

First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later.
Canada
Richard Ford. 2012 MORE

My daughter, Liza, put her heart in a silver box and buried it under the willow tree in our backyard.
A Grown-up Kind of Pretty
Joshilyn Jackson, 2012 MORE

A trio of bulbous black SUVs passes sleekly by, gliding through their world like seals.
The Revisionists
Thomas Mullen, 2011 MORE

Three keys: one for the main entrance; one for the letter box on the wall outside and one for my brown door, which comes complete with fist holes and crowbar dents around the lock.
Mountains of the Moon
I. J. Kay, 2012 MORE

Detective Saunderson walked backward on the beach, glancing around now and then to make sure he wasn’t going to trip over piece of driftwood.
The Great Leader
Jim Harrison, 2011 MORE

So Carmen was married, just. She sat under a huge butter moon, on a windless night in the summer of 1983, at a table, in front of the remains of some chicken cordon bleu.
Carry the One
Carol Anshaw, 2012 MORE

Alec Krasnansky stood on the platform of Vienna’s Western Terminal while, all around him, the representatives of Soviet Jewry—from Tallinn to Tashkent—roiled, snarled, and elbowed to deposit their belongings onto the waiting train.
The Free World
David Bezmozgis, 2011 MORE

There are a lot of places I could begin the story, and a lot of ways I could change a few details and make it easier to read.
The Talk-Funny Girl
Roland Merullo, 2011 MORE

The pavement rises up and hits her.
How it All Began
Penelope Lively, 2011 MORE

China’s turned on herself.
Salvage the Bones
Jesmyn Ward, 2011 MORE

The door was presumed to have been the entry to a coal chute, a perfectly reasonable assumption since a small hillock of damp coal sat moldering before it.
The Night Strangers
Chris Bohjalian, 2011 MORE

Warily, watchfully, point on patrol in hostile terrain, Joe Shelby surveyed the newsroom of the Paris Star—the stained carpeting and exposed air-conditioner ducts; the battered, battleship-gray paintwork of his new professional home, his Valhalla.
The Paris Correspondent
Alan S Cowell, 2011 MORE

Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat, thinking that you’ve taken a wrong turn and are stuck in a life you don’t want.
Escape
Barbara Delinsky, 2011 MORE

In the summer of 1917 Robert Grainier took part in an attempt on the life of a Chinese laborer caught, or anyway accused of, stealing from the company stores of the Spokane International Railway in the Idaho Panhandle.
Train Dreams
Denis Johnson, 2002 MORE

The modern marriage has two states, plateau and precipice, and in the winter of our recent crisis—with markets plummeting and even rich folks crying poor; with the dark reign of one tinsel president finally ending, and the promised hope of a new man about to start; yes, with hope rising like a cockamamie kite and fear more common than love—Charlie Pepper forgot his wife.
Three Stages of Amazement
Carol Edgarian, 2011 MORE

The place generally referred to as Hell but also known variously as Hades, the Kingdom of Fire, Old Nick’s Place, and assorted other names designed to indicate that this is not somewhere in which you might want to spend eternity, let alone a short vacation, was in a state of turmoil.
The Infernals
John Connolly, 2011 MORE

Russian midgets are the tallest and Russian watches are the fastest, went the joke, and my watch—a Sputnik, which I had bought in Moscow after my recital at the National Conservatory—lived up to its reputation.
Wunderkind
Nikolai Grozni, 2011 MORE

My mother was the masked vigilante known as the Black Stiletto.
The Black Stiletto
Raymond Benson, 2011 MORE

Every morning Ellie West listened to her son get out of bed.
The Train of Small Mercies
David Rowell, 2011 MORE

The taxi's radio was tuned to a classical FM broadcast. Janaìcek's Sinfonietta—probably not the ideal music to hear in a taxi caught in traffic.
IQ84
Haruki Murakami, 2011 (Tr. Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel, 2011) MORE

It isn’t like the Kid is locally famous for doing a good or a bad thing and even if people knew his real name it wouldn’t change how they treat him unless they looked it up online which is not something he wants to encourage.
Lost Memory of Skin
Russell Banks, 2011 MORE

There are both wonderful and awful moments in a woman’s life.
Coming Up for Air
Patti Callahan Henry, 2011 MORE

What did I know about murder cases that a man’s life should lie in my hands?
The Ballad of Tom Dooley
Sharyn McCrumb, 2011 MORE

On Thanksgiving Day in 1962 I was seated at the dining room table with the Dunbar family, father and mother, eight-year-old twins Janet and Julia, and Johnny, who was my age.
American Boy
Larry Watson, 2011 MORE

The baby boy wriggled in his arms, a warm, wet mass, softer than a goat, and hairier than a rabbit kit.
Bright’s Passage
Josh Ritter, 2011 MORE

The peacocks tilted their heads back and bellowed and hollered their desires into the night.
A Good Hard Look
Ann Napolitano, 2011 MORE

Adam Newman and Evelyn Winston fell in love over a plate of cold chili dogs and limp onion rings.
Paradise Dogs
Man Martin, 2011 MORE

Luce’s new stranger children were small and beautiful and violent.
Nightwoods
Charles Frazier, 2011 MORE

When I was eleven I was too old to cry in front of my friends, but not too old to fake a stomachache at a sleepover if I was suddenly overcome with homesickness because my friend’s mother had made mutton stew and prayed before the meal and bought no-name-brand toothpaste that tasted funny.
The Dubious Salvation of Jack V.
Jacques Strauss, 2011 MORE

They are playing a game called Firsts that Tucker had made up to pass the time in the car that first week when he and Sonia barely knew each other, in the days before their first time, which should have imparted intimate knowledge, but had, in some indefinable way, made them feel even more like strangers than they were before.
Witches on the Road Tonight
Sheri Holman, 2011 MORE

To start with, look at all her books.
The Marriage Plot
Jeffrey Eugenides, 2011 MORE

She had two hours to conceal the secrets of her life.
The Spoiler
Annalena McAfee, 2011 MORE

Schwartz didn’t notice the kid during the game.
The Art of Fielding
Chad Harbach, 2011 MORE

Stunned by love and some would say stupid from too much sex, I decided I had to drive down South to kill a man.
Busy Monsters
William Giraldi, 2011 MORE

The house my father left behind in Fargo, North Dakota, was never really a house at all. Always, instead, it was an idea of itself.
The Sentimentalists
Johanna Skibsrud, 2011 MORE

The police came for me in the middle of the night.
Break the Skin
Lee Martin, 2011 MORE

I couldn’t tell you the first time I saw Jack Ellery, but it would have been during the couple of years I spent in the Bronx.
A Drop of the Hard Stuff
Lawrence Block, 2011 MORE

It had to be the strangest getaway in history.
Sex on the Moon
Ben Mezrich, 2011' MORE

The Rutherford girl had been missing for eight days when Larry Ott returned home and found a monster waiting in his house.
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Tom Franklin, 2010 MORE

People like to warn you that by the time you reach the middle of your life, passion will begin to feel like a meal eaten long ago, which you remember with great tenderness.
The Uncoupling
Meg Wolitzer, 2011 MORE

Titus Jones stood in the middle of his tobacco patch, lifted his hoe from the hardscrabble earth and listened.
The Tender Mercy of Roses
Anna Michaels, 2011 MORE

Whenever Maize snuck away to see Hal Jamesley, there was a blissful moment when she hardly recognized herself.
The Intimates
Ralph Sassone, 2011 MORE

Some stories are never meant to be told. Some can only be told as fairy tales.
Untold Story
Monica Ali, 2011' MORE

They tore at the earth with their entrenching tools and mess-kit lids as the shells burst all around them and in the scattered pine tops overhead.
Remember Ben Clayton
Stephen Harrigan, 2011 MORE

“Surprised to see me?” said Nicolas Pratt, planting his walking stick on the crematorium carpet and fixing Patrick with a look of slightly aimless defiance, a habit no longer useful but too late to change.
At Last
Edward St Aubyn, 2011 MORE

Against all odds, against my own wishes, this is a love story. And it all began, of all places, at Alonzo Wax’s funeral.
The School of Night
Louis Bayard, 2011 MORE

All I ever wanted in life was true love, a set of copper cookware, and the perfect recipe for red velvet cake.
Gone With a Handsomer Man
Michael Lee West, 2011 MORE

From: Jennifer Scribner-Snyder
To: Beth Freemont
Sent: Wed. 08/18/1999 9:06 AM
Subject: Where are you?
Would it kill you to get here before noon? I’m sitting here among the shards of my life as I know it, and you…if I know you, you just woke up.
Attachments
Rainbow Rowell, 2011 MORE

Father was a loud man. His voice entered a room before he did.
Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away
Christie Watson, 2011 MORE

The day Whaley came for her she had spent among the live oaks, huddling and shivering in the squalls of frigid rain.
The Watery Part of the World
Michael Parker, 2011 MORE

Picture her there in the pinched little galley where you could barely stand up without cracking your head, her right hand raw and stinging still from the scald of the coffee she’d dutifully—and foolishly—tried to make so they could have something to keep them going, a good sport, always a good sport though she’d woken up vomiting in her berth not half an hour ago.
When the Killing’s Done
TC Boyle, 2011 MORE

The bride and groom had two wedding receptions: the first was in the basement of the Lutheran church right after the ceremony, with punch and cake and coffee and pastel mints. This was for those of the bride's relatives who were stern about alcohol.
The Year We Left Home
Jean Thompson, 2011 MORE

My name is Bruno Littlemore: Bruno I was given, Littlemore I gave myself, with some prodding I have finally decided to give this undeserving and spiritually diseased world the generous gift of my memoirs.
The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore
Benjamin Hale, 2011 MORE

It was a cold, clear morning, the sun low in the sky, casting long shadows that stretched the length of the sidewalk.
In the Rooms
Tom Shone, 2011 MORE

If I hadn’t been spending so much time living in my head, I might have noticed earlier that there was something terribly wrong with the single-engine plane circling overhead.
Bad Bird
Chris Knopf, 2011 MORE

A man and a rooster exit a taxi idling on a crowded street.
Moondogs
Alexander Yates, 2011 MORE

Tuesdays, Emily Maxwell put what precious little remained of her life in God’s and her sister-in-law Arlene’s shaky hands and they drove together to Edgewood for Eat ‘n Park’s two-for-one breakfast buffet.
Emily, Alone
Stewart O’Nan, 2011 MORE

Such a thing had never been witnessed in the village: a small herd of ibex skittering down Drum Hill towards the main road, their thick, ribbed horns blue in the small hours, their yellow eyes catching the streetlight.
The Hunger Trace
Edward Hogan, 2011 MORE

Somewhere downstairs a door keeps banging in the wind.
The Emperor's Body
Peter Brooks, 2011 MORE

Some things were certain; they were undeniable, inarguable. Nora Lindell was gone, for one thing. There was no doubt about that.
The Fates Will Find Their Way
Hannah Pittard, 2011 MORE

The forty days of the soul begin on the morning after death.
The Tiger’s Wife
Tea Obreht, 2011 MORE

I had been mistaken for him so many times that when he died it was as if part of myself had died too.
Mistaken
Neil Jordan, 2011' MORE

Always thought if I didn’t get tenure I would shoot myself or strap a bomb to my chest and walk into the faculty cafeteria, but when it happened I just got bourbon drunk and cried a lot and rolled into a ball on my office floor.
Pym
Mat Johnson, 2011 MORE

They arrived in bulk, in Black Tie Preferred, in one large clump behind our wooden fence, peering over each other’s shoulders and into our backyard like people at the zoo who wanted a better view of the animals.
The Adults
Alison Espach, 2011' MORE

The town of Blackwell, Massachusetts, changed its name in 1786. It had been called Bearsville when it was founded in 1750, but it quickly became apparent that a name such as that did little to encourage new settlers.
The Red Garden
Alice Hoffman, 2011 MORE

And so when I began to go on evening walks last fall, I found Morningside Heights an easy place from which to set out into the city.
Open City
Teju Cole, 2011 MORE

So it had come to this, she thought, as the last of the afternoon shrank away.
Half of the Human Race
Anthony Quinn, 2011 MORE

The oceans rose and the clouds washed over the sky; the tide of humanity came revolving in love and betrayal, in skyscrapers and ruins, through walls breached and children conjured, and soon it was the year 2002.
The History of History
Ida Hattemer-Higgins, 2011 MORE

I opened the bevelled-glass door under the sign announcing Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company in ornate bronze.
Clara and Mr Tiffany
Susan Vreeland, 2011 MORE

Our mother performed in starlight. Whose innovation this was I never discovered. Probably it was Chief Bigtree’s idea, and it was a good one—to blank the follow spot and let a sharp moon cut across the sky, unchaperoned; to kill the microphone; to leave the stage lights’ tin eyelids scrolled and give the tourists in the stands a chance to enjoy the darkness of our island; to encourage the whole stadium to gulp air along with Swamplandia!’s star performer, the world-famous alligator wrestler Hilola Bigtree.
Swamplandia!
Karen Russell, 2011 MORE

My mother was not real. She was an early dream, a hope. She was a place. Snowy, like here, and cold.
Caribou Island
David Vann, 2011 MORE

Sometime during his restless fifteenth year, Bernie Karp discovered in his parents’ food freezer – a white enameled Kelvinator humming in the corner of the basement rumpus room – an old man frozen in a block of ice.
The Frozen Rabbi
Steve Stern, 2010' MORE

They rose up like men.
	Home Toni Morrison, 2012	MORE
I’m going to begin by telling you about Mrs. Frost
	In One Person John Irving, 2012	MORE
First, I'll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then about the murders, which happened later.
	Canada Richard Ford. 2012	MORE
My daughter, Liza, put her heart in a silver box and buried it under the willow tree in our backyard.
	A Grown-up Kind of Pretty Joshilyn Jackson, 2012	MORE
A trio of bulbous black SUVs passes sleekly by, gliding through their world like seals.
	The Revisionists Thomas Mullen, 2011	MORE
Three keys: one for the main entrance; one for the letter box on the wall outside and one for my brown door, which comes complete with fist holes and crowbar dents around the lock.
	Mountains of the Moon I. J. Kay, 2012	MORE
Detective Saunderson walked backward on the beach, glancing around now and then to make sure he wasn’t going to trip over piece of driftwood.
	The Great Leader Jim Harrison, 2011	MORE
So Carmen was married, just. She sat under a huge butter moon, on a windless night in the summer of 1983, at a table, in front of the remains of some chicken cordon bleu.
	Carry the One Carol Anshaw, 2012	MORE
Alec Krasnansky stood on the platform of Vienna’s Western Terminal while, all around him, the representatives of Soviet Jewry—from Tallinn to Tashkent—roiled, snarled, and elbowed to deposit their belongings onto the waiting train.
	The Free World David Bezmozgis, 2011	MORE
There are a lot of places I could begin the story, and a lot of ways I could change a few details and make it easier to read.
	The Talk-Funny Girl Roland Merullo, 2011	MORE
The pavement rises up and hits her.
	How it All Began Penelope Lively, 2011	MORE
China’s turned on herself.
	Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward, 2011	MORE
The door was presumed to have been the entry to a coal chute, a perfectly reasonable assumption since a small hillock of damp coal sat moldering before it.
	The Night Strangers Chris Bohjalian, 2011	MORE
Warily, watchfully, point on patrol in hostile terrain, Joe Shelby surveyed the newsroom of the Paris Star—the stained carpeting and exposed air-conditioner ducts; the battered, battleship-gray paintwork of his new professional home, his Valhalla.
	The Paris Correspondent Alan S Cowell, 2011	MORE
Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat, thinking that you’ve taken a wrong turn and are stuck in a life you don’t want.
	Escape Barbara Delinsky, 2011	MORE
In the summer of 1917 Robert Grainier took part in an attempt on the life of a Chinese laborer caught, or anyway accused of, stealing from the company stores of the Spokane International Railway in the Idaho Panhandle.
	Train Dreams Denis Johnson, 2002	MORE
The modern marriage has two states, plateau and precipice, and in the winter of our recent crisis—with markets plummeting and even rich folks crying poor; with the dark reign of one tinsel president finally ending, and the promised hope of a new man about to start; yes, with hope rising like a cockamamie kite and fear more common than love—Charlie Pepper forgot his wife.
	Three Stages of Amazement Carol Edgarian, 2011	MORE
The place generally referred to as Hell but also known variously as Hades, the Kingdom of Fire, Old Nick’s Place, and assorted other names designed to indicate that this is not somewhere in which you might want to spend eternity, let alone a short vacation, was in a state of turmoil.
	The Infernals John Connolly, 2011	MORE
Russian midgets are the tallest and Russian watches are the fastest, went the joke, and my watch—a Sputnik, which I had bought in Moscow after my recital at the National Conservatory—lived up to its reputation.
	Wunderkind Nikolai Grozni, 2011	MORE
My mother was the masked vigilante known as the Black Stiletto.
	The Black Stiletto Raymond Benson, 2011	MORE
Every morning Ellie West listened to her son get out of bed.
	The Train of Small Mercies David Rowell, 2011	MORE
The taxi's radio was tuned to a classical FM broadcast. Janaìcek's Sinfonietta—probably not the ideal music to hear in a taxi caught in traffic.
	IQ84 Haruki Murakami, 2011 (Tr. Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel, 2011)	MORE
It isn’t like the Kid is locally famous for doing a good or a bad thing and even if people knew his real name it wouldn’t change how they treat him unless they looked it up online which is not something he wants to encourage.
	Lost Memory of Skin Russell Banks, 2011	MORE
There are both wonderful and awful moments in a woman’s life.
	Coming Up for Air Patti Callahan Henry, 2011	MORE
What did I know about murder cases that a man’s life should lie in my hands?
	The Ballad of Tom Dooley Sharyn McCrumb, 2011	MORE
On Thanksgiving Day in 1962 I was seated at the dining room table with the Dunbar family, father and mother, eight-year-old twins Janet and Julia, and Johnny, who was my age.
	American Boy Larry Watson, 2011	MORE
The baby boy wriggled in his arms, a warm, wet mass, softer than a goat, and hairier than a rabbit kit.
	Bright’s Passage Josh Ritter, 2011	MORE
The peacocks tilted their heads back and bellowed and hollered their desires into the night.
	A Good Hard Look Ann Napolitano, 2011	MORE
Adam Newman and Evelyn Winston fell in love over a plate of cold chili dogs and limp onion rings.
	Paradise Dogs Man Martin, 2011	MORE
Luce’s new stranger children were small and beautiful and violent.
	Nightwoods Charles Frazier, 2011	MORE
When I was eleven I was too old to cry in front of my friends, but not too old to fake a stomachache at a sleepover if I was suddenly overcome with homesickness because my friend’s mother had made mutton stew and prayed before the meal and bought no-name-brand toothpaste that tasted funny.
	The Dubious Salvation of Jack V. Jacques Strauss, 2011	MORE
They are playing a game called Firsts that Tucker had made up to pass the time in the car that first week when he and Sonia barely knew each other, in the days before their first time, which should have imparted intimate knowledge, but had, in some indefinable way, made them feel even more like strangers than they were before.
	Witches on the Road Tonight Sheri Holman, 2011	MORE
To start with, look at all her books.
	The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides, 2011	MORE
She had two hours to conceal the secrets of her life.
	The Spoiler Annalena McAfee, 2011	MORE
Schwartz didn’t notice the kid during the game.
	The Art of Fielding Chad Harbach, 2011	MORE
Stunned by love and some would say stupid from too much sex, I decided I had to drive down South to kill a man.
	Busy Monsters William Giraldi, 2011	MORE
The house my father left behind in Fargo, North Dakota, was never really a house at all. Always, instead, it was an idea of itself.
	The Sentimentalists Johanna Skibsrud, 2011	MORE
The police came for me in the middle of the night.
	Break the Skin Lee Martin, 2011	MORE
I couldn’t tell you the first time I saw Jack Ellery, but it would have been during the couple of years I spent in the Bronx.
	A Drop of the Hard Stuff Lawrence Block, 2011	MORE
It had to be the strangest getaway in history.
	Sex on the Moon Ben Mezrich, 2011'	MORE
The Rutherford girl had been missing for eight days when Larry Ott returned home and found a monster waiting in his house.
	Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter Tom Franklin, 2010	MORE
People like to warn you that by the time you reach the middle of your life, passion will begin to feel like a meal eaten long ago, which you remember with great tenderness.
	The Uncoupling Meg Wolitzer, 2011	MORE
Titus Jones stood in the middle of his tobacco patch, lifted his hoe from the hardscrabble earth and listened.
	The Tender Mercy of Roses Anna Michaels, 2011	MORE
Whenever Maize snuck away to see Hal Jamesley, there was a blissful moment when she hardly recognized herself.
	The Intimates Ralph Sassone, 2011	MORE
Some stories are never meant to be told. Some can only be told as fairy tales.
	Untold Story Monica Ali, 2011'	MORE
They tore at the earth with their entrenching tools and mess-kit lids as the shells burst all around them and in the scattered pine tops overhead.
	Remember Ben Clayton Stephen Harrigan, 2011	MORE
“Surprised to see me?” said Nicolas Pratt, planting his walking stick on the crematorium carpet and fixing Patrick with a look of slightly aimless defiance, a habit no longer useful but too late to change.
	At Last Edward St Aubyn, 2011	MORE
Against all odds, against my own wishes, this is a love story. And it all began, of all places, at Alonzo Wax’s funeral.
	The School of Night Louis Bayard, 2011	MORE
All I ever wanted in life was true love, a set of copper cookware, and the perfect recipe for red velvet cake.
	Gone With a Handsomer Man Michael Lee West, 2011	MORE
From: Jennifer Scribner-Snyder To: Beth Freemont Sent: Wed. 08/18/1999 9:06 AM Subject: Where are you? Would it kill you to get here before noon? I’m sitting here among the shards of my life as I know it, and you…if I know you, you just woke up.
	Attachments Rainbow Rowell, 2011	MORE
Father was a loud man. His voice entered a room before he did.
	Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away Christie Watson, 2011	MORE
The day Whaley came for her she had spent among the live oaks, huddling and shivering in the squalls of frigid rain.
	The Watery Part of the World Michael Parker, 2011	MORE
Picture her there in the pinched little galley where you could barely stand up without cracking your head, her right hand raw and stinging still from the scald of the coffee she’d dutifully—and foolishly—tried to make so they could have something to keep them going, a good sport, always a good sport though she’d woken up vomiting in her berth not half an hour ago.
	When the Killing’s Done TC Boyle, 2011	MORE
The bride and groom had two wedding receptions: the first was in the basement of the Lutheran church right after the ceremony, with punch and cake and coffee and pastel mints. This was for those of the bride's relatives who were stern about alcohol.
	The Year We Left Home Jean Thompson, 2011	MORE
My name is Bruno Littlemore: Bruno I was given, Littlemore I gave myself, with some prodding I have finally decided to give this undeserving and spiritually diseased world the generous gift of my memoirs.
	The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore Benjamin Hale, 2011	MORE
It was a cold, clear morning, the sun low in the sky, casting long shadows that stretched the length of the sidewalk.
	In the Rooms Tom Shone, 2011	MORE
If I hadn’t been spending so much time living in my head, I might have noticed earlier that there was something terribly wrong with the single-engine plane circling overhead.
	Bad Bird Chris Knopf, 2011	MORE
A man and a rooster exit a taxi idling on a crowded street.
	Moondogs Alexander Yates, 2011	MORE
Tuesdays, Emily Maxwell put what precious little remained of her life in God’s and her sister-in-law Arlene’s shaky hands and they drove together to Edgewood for Eat ‘n Park’s two-for-one breakfast buffet.
	Emily, Alone Stewart O’Nan, 2011	MORE
Such a thing had never been witnessed in the village: a small herd of ibex skittering down Drum Hill towards the main road, their thick, ribbed horns blue in the small hours, their yellow eyes catching the streetlight.
	The Hunger Trace Edward Hogan, 2011	MORE
Somewhere downstairs a door keeps banging in the wind.
	The Emperor's Body Peter Brooks, 2011	MORE
Some things were certain; they were undeniable, inarguable. Nora Lindell was gone, for one thing. There was no doubt about that.
	The Fates Will Find Their Way Hannah Pittard, 2011	MORE
The forty days of the soul begin on the morning after death.
	The Tiger’s Wife Tea Obreht, 2011	MORE
I had been mistaken for him so many times that when he died it was as if part of myself had died too.
	Mistaken Neil Jordan, 2011'	MORE
Always thought if I didn’t get tenure I would shoot myself or strap a bomb to my chest and walk into the faculty cafeteria, but when it happened I just got bourbon drunk and cried a lot and rolled into a ball on my office floor.
	Pym Mat Johnson, 2011	MORE
They arrived in bulk, in Black Tie Preferred, in one large clump behind our wooden fence, peering over each other’s shoulders and into our backyard like people at the zoo who wanted a better view of the animals.
	The Adults Alison Espach, 2011'	MORE
The town of Blackwell, Massachusetts, changed its name in 1786. It had been called Bearsville when it was founded in 1750, but it quickly became apparent that a name such as that did little to encourage new settlers.
	The Red Garden Alice Hoffman, 2011	MORE
And so when I began to go on evening walks last fall, I found Morningside Heights an easy place from which to set out into the city.
	Open City Teju Cole, 2011	MORE
So it had come to this, she thought, as the last of the afternoon shrank away.
	Half of the Human Race Anthony Quinn, 2011	MORE
The oceans rose and the clouds washed over the sky; the tide of humanity came revolving in love and betrayal, in skyscrapers and ruins, through walls breached and children conjured, and soon it was the year 2002.
	The History of History Ida Hattemer-Higgins, 2011	MORE
I opened the bevelled-glass door under the sign announcing Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company in ornate bronze.
	Clara and Mr Tiffany Susan Vreeland, 2011	MORE
Our mother performed in starlight. Whose innovation this was I never discovered. Probably it was Chief Bigtree’s idea, and it was a good one—to blank the follow spot and let a sharp moon cut across the sky, unchaperoned; to kill the microphone; to leave the stage lights’ tin eyelids scrolled and give the tourists in the stands a chance to enjoy the darkness of our island; to encourage the whole stadium to gulp air along with Swamplandia!’s star performer, the world-famous alligator wrestler Hilola Bigtree.
	Swamplandia! Karen Russell, 2011	MORE
My mother was not real. She was an early dream, a hope. She was a place. Snowy, like here, and cold.
	Caribou Island David Vann, 2011	MORE
Sometime during his restless fifteenth year, Bernie Karp discovered in his parents’ food freezer – a white enameled Kelvinator humming in the corner of the basement rumpus room – an old man frozen in a block of ice.
	The Frozen Rabbi Steve Stern, 2010'	MORE