Inspired by BookTube I’ve read the first sentence of each International Booker longlister and this is my ranking.
- “When I opened the suitcase and took out the knife, wrapped in a grimy old rag tied with a knot and covered in dark stains, I was just over seven years old.” – Crooked plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz. Perfection!
- “When my father told me he hit my mother only once in twenty-three years of marriage, I didn’t even bother replying.” – The house on via Gemito by Domenico Starnone, translated by Oonagh Stransky. Tough topic, which I like, and there is something about the tone and the history behind it that makes me want to read more.
- “When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished, they say.” – Lost on me by Veronica Raimo, translated by Leah Janeczko. Ominous in its own way.
- “Will you come to my funeral?” – Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann. I have so many questions.
- “Samson was deafened by the sound of the saber striking his father’s head.” – The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris Dralyuk. Upsetting and hard to read as someone who has immense grief around losing my father.
- “On the day his wife left the country, Ulises Kan decided to get himself a dog.” – Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón, translated by Noel Hernández González and Daniel Hahn. Why did the wife leave a guy that likes dogs?
- “The strangest thing about being alone here in Paris, in an anthropology museum gallery more or less beneath the Eiffel Tower, is the thought that all these statuettes that look like me were wrenched from my country by a man whose last name I inherited.” – Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener, translated by Julia Sanches. I did not see that last punch coming.
- “A house like a chicken coop, so that if you leaned on it or kicked at it, all the planks would fall to the ground, and some would break in half, everything rotten.” – White nights by Urszula Honek, translated by Kate Webster. I’m very concerned for this house.
- “Yi Jino set up his toilet on the opposite side of the catwalk, as far away from his tent as possible.” – Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae. I’m confused but intrigued.
- “After a few days of the virus in my body I come down with a fever, which is followed by an urge to return to a particular novel.” – The details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson. Peculiar and quirky and my current read.
- “Waterboarding, I told my mother.” – What I’d rather not think about by Jente Posthuma, translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey. Yeah, I didn’t not remember what waterboarding was when I first read this.
- “Enero Rey, standing firm on the boat, stocky and beardless, swollen-bellied, legs astride, stares hard at the surface of the river and waits, revolver in hand.” – Not a river by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott. I’m worried we are in for some anti-fatness my friends.
- “The stop is on the right-hand side of the street.” – A dictator calls by Ismail Kadare, translated by John Hodgson. … …. …. Ok.
Which one is your favourite and least favourite? What are you reading (International Booker or not)?
Emilie's Bookish Thoughts 