 | The Man Who Thought He Was Hitler by Jo Hawk
Buy new: £8.82 / Used from: £13.52 The opening sentence is a cracker, the end a tease but fun to work out. (And any book with a strong cat character is good with me.)
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 | The Big Sleep (Penguin Fiction) by Raymond Chandler
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £2.42 Ok, I admit it: this is my favourite opening - that look of hard wet rain. Great ending and brilliant writing throughout.
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 | The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Buy new: £3.15 / Used from: £1.69 To date what you are today from the age twelve sets up a contract with the reader. But the phrase that sticks in my mind is, 'There's a way to be good again'.
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 | Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Buy new: £0.01 / Used from: £0.01 Multiple stories so multiple endings -all good.
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 | The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Buy new: £5.02 / Used from: £0.01 I just love the idea of 'The Cemetery of Forgotten Books'. A truly Gothic ending.
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 | Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Buy new: £2.95 / Used from: £2.92 Immediately and quietly establishes a sense of place and you know you're in for a treat.
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 | Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £2.50 Haunting, mysterious, Japanese. Another good cat character in this book.
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 | Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01 Not sure where it starts. One of the great novels of recent times.
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 | Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01 Any book about apes has great possibilities for tricksy, opening paragraphs. Based on solid research.
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 | Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £1.25 Takes you straight in to a mystery. A little disjointed in places I think, but still good
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 | Ulysses (Penguin Modern Classics) by James Joyce
Buy new: £6.49 / Used from: £4.40 I've always found this bland, stately opening sentence haunting: I have no idea why.
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 | An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01 A quiet beginning to a quiet book but it reads like poetry: it is poetry.
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 | Darkmans by Nicola Barker
Buy new: £10.49 / Used from: £3.17 The combination of prescription drugs, waste management and Ashford struck me as amusing, but then I am a fan of Barker. Does it have a proper ending?
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 | Casino Royale (Penguin Viking Lit Fiction) by Ian Fleming
Buy new: £3.99 / Used from: £0.01 A lot of film critics trash this book when they obviously haven't read it. When Fleming wrote this he was a stylist.
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 | Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
Buy new: £3.83 / Used from: £0.01 A daft romp but so well written,
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 | If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
Buy used from: £0.65 Yes this is a real modern classic.
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 | Life Of Pi by Yann Martel
Buy new: £3.99 / Used from: £0.01 Suffering, sad and gloomy, all in the opening sentence: it left me intrigued and I wasn't disappointed. In my book group, there were two completely different views about what the ending was!
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 | Number9dream by David Mitchell
Buy used from: £0.35 Great character. I wasn't always sure about what was happening, but later all is revealed.
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 | Young Adolf by Beryl Bainbridge
Buy used from: £0.01 A must read, very amusing - don't miss it.
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 | Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £1.68 Still good: still very good.
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 | Clear: A Transparent Novel by Nicola Barker
Buy new: £3.00 / Used from: £0.57 I loved the analysis of Shane. What an unusual beginning.
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 | Cider with Rosie (Vintage Classics) by Laurie Lee
Buy new: £2.97 / Used from: £0.01 More poetry.
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 | In Search of Lost Time: The Way by Swann's Vol 1 (In Search of Lost Time 1) by Marcel Proust
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £4.00 The opening is better in French. The whole thing is probably better in French, but who has the time?
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 | Emma (Penguin Popular Classics) by Jane Austen
Buy new: £1.80 / Used from: £0.01 Another classic opening sentence.
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 | Moby Dick (Wordsworth Classics) by Herman Melville
Buy new: £1.79 / Used from: £0.01 Well it has to be in because it's the one everyone knows. A long, hard read but still worth it.
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