“Under the sheets I was beside myself”: First Lines from LARGE ANIMALS

Jess Arndt’s debut collection (out today!) features stunning writing—down to the first sentences.

First lines are a big deal. They need to hook the reader, convey the tone of the book, and, of course, be beautifully written. The best opening lines become famous in their own right (flashback to your tenth-grade English teacher reverently repeating “Call me Ishmael” one too many times).

Novelists only have to nail that first line one time—story collections are a different matter. In Large Animals (out today from Catapult!), debut author Jess Arndt captures the imagination effortlessly and immediately from line one—not just once, but twelve times over. We think she’s absolutely brilliant, and we’re not alone—Maggie Nelson called her book “acerbic, ecstatic, hilarious, psychedelic, and affecting in turn . . . an electric debut.”

In celebration of the release, we’re sharing a selection of favorite first lines from Large Animals. To read the rest, find the book online or at your local bookstore now!

Text from images:

“We had it together but we also had it when we were apart.” —from “Together,” a story by Jess Arndt

“Under the sheets I was beside myself.” —from “Beside Myself,” a story by Jess Arndt

“In the morning the waves glowed like uranium, a deep sweat coming up off the seafloor.” —from “Moon Colonies,” a story by Jess Arndt

“In my sleep I was plagued by large animals—teams of grizzlies, timber wolves, gorillas even came in and out of the mist.” —from “Large Animals,” a story by Jess Arndt

“All fall I’d been carrying around something that wasn’t mine.” —from “Third Arm,” a story by Jess Arndt