Great Beginnings: Psalm 44
Posted by David Duhr in 
I’m reading Psalm 44, Danilo Kiš’s first novel, written when he was a fresh-faced 25-year-old. I have no opinion to express yet, as I’m only one-third of the way through it, but I do enjoy the opening line, which fits in well with some of our past Great Beginnings discussions, and introduces us to Marija, a prisoner at Auschwitz in what appear to be the final weeks of WWII, with the Allies advancing:
For several days already, people had been whispering the news that she was going to attempt an escape before the camp was evacuated.
What do we think of this opening line? What does it tell us about the narrator, about the character, about the setting? What questions does it raise? Does this line tell us anything about how Psalm 44 may be involved? Mad mad props to whoever gets the conversation going.