“Who am I? And how, I wonder, will this story end?
“The sun has come up and I am sitting by a window that is foggy with the breath of a life gone by. I’m a sight this morning: two shirts, heavy pants, a scarf wrapped twice around my neck and tucked into a thick sweater knitted by my daughter thirty birthdays ago. The thermostat in my room is set as high as it will go, and a smaller space heater sits directly behind me. It clicks and groans and spews hot air like a fairy-tale dragon, and still my body shivers with a cold that will never go away, a cold that has been eighty years in the making. Eighty years, I think sometimes, and despite my own acceptance of my age, it still amazes me that I haven’t been warm since George Bush was president. I wonder if this is how it is for everyone my age.”
Suggested by Sylvia Gianopulos, Chicago
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Are there any first lines of books that have provoked, touched or inspired you? We invite you to send them in for consideration. Please include a photocopy of the book cover, publication date and opening paragraph and send them to:
Aleksandra Kostovski
Chicago Tribune
Attention: OPENING LINES
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Chicago, IL 60611




