First Lines: Patrick Ness

There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.

The Knife of Never Letting Go

Patrick Ness

First Lines: Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov

First Lines: Audrey Niffenegger

Espeth died while Robert was standing in front of a vending machine watching tea shoot into a small plastic cup.

Her Fearful Symmetry

Audrey Niffenegger

First Lines: V.S. Naipaul

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

A Bend in the River

V.S. Naipaul