Berlin, 1901: Thomas Mann’s first novel "Buddenbrooks: Decline of a Family" was published. The novel begins with words: "Was ist das. - Was - ist das..." ("What is this - what - is this ..."). As I remember those were the first words of German language I met when I was kid. Somehow I have always paid great attention to the first sentence of a novel. The best one for me is beginning of “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” (1981) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: “On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty…”