The very first sentence

Once upon a time... only the fairy tales begin with this magic formula.  We do know how an author "polishes up" his, or her, "first sentence". Sometimes it transports us at once, seduces us. Sometimes it is mighty, sometimes, isolated from its context, and from the sentences that follow, it may seem quite common. Each day, I will quote the first sentence of a book written by an author ranging from Virginia Woolf to Murakami or Steinbeck, from Indridason to Colette or Dostoievski....