The Bookery’s Cliff waxes lyrical about the beginning of Javier Marias’ bestseller A Heart So White…

Javier Marias died in September. Widely regarded as one of the best Spanish writers and translators ever, his prize-winning career was one of amazing novel after amazing novel, with no dip in quality. The publishing of a new Marias book was something to be looked forward to, and then celebrated. And, in my opinion, one of his novels contained the best opening line in any novel I’ve ever read…

Do you have a favourite opening line? There are certainly a few memorable ones – how about the beginning of A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief…”

Some people swear by JP Hartley’s The Go-Between:

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”

And of course it’s hard to beat Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca:

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

For my money though, the opening line from Javier Marias’ novel A Heart So White has it all – poetry, mystery, and a punch to really make you want to read on:

“I did not want to know but I have since come to know that one of the girls, when she wasn’t a girl anymore and hadn’t long been back from her honeymoon, went into the bedroom, stood in front of the mirror, unbuttoned her blouse, took off her bra and aimed her own father’s gun at her heart…”

Even the publishers knew this was a great opening, so much so that they reprinted it on the front of the paperback edition in the late 1990s. The novel itself is remarkable – beautiful, melancholy, and fully soaked in the human condition. It will always be regarded as Javier Marias’ greatest triumph, but it stands on the shelf alongside fourteen other breathtaking books by this sadly missed author.