Hideous Kinky – Esther Freud

First:  It wasn’t until we were halfway through France that we noticed Maretta wasn’t talking.
Last:  Ibadly wanted to climb up and join her, but I thought it would be safest to stay on the seat in case Mum changed her mind about going home and decided at the last minute to jump off at one [...]

The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

First:  I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.
Last:  I ran.

On the Road – Jack Kerouac

First:  I met Dean not long after my wife and I split up.
Last:  So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all the raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West [...]

The Minister’s Black Veil – Nathaniel Hawthorne

First:  The sexton stood in the porch of Milford meeting-house, pulling lustily at the bell-rope.
Last:  The grass of many years has sprung up and withered on that grave, the burial-stone is moss-grown, and god Mr. Hooper’s face is dust;  but awful is still the thought, that it mouldered beneath the black veil!

The Tell-Tale Heart – Edgar Allan Poe

First:  True!-nervous-very,very dreadfully nervous I had been, and am;  but why will you say that I am mad?
Last:  “I admit the deed!-tear up the planks!-here, here!-it is the beating of his hideous heart!”

The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls

First:  I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdresed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.
Last:  A wind picked up, rattling the windows, and the candle flames suddenly shifted, dancing along the border between turbulence and order.

Watership Down – Richard Adams

First:  The primroses were over.
Last:  Hazel followed; and together they slipped away, running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom.

She’s Come Undone – Wally Lamb

First:  In one of my earliest memories, my mother and I are on the front porch of our rented Carter Avenue house watching two delivery men carry our brand-new television set up the steps.
Last:  “Thayer, I saw her!”  I yell.  “I saw!”

The World According to Garp – John Irving

First:  Garp’s mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theatre.
Last:  But in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.

The Power of One – Bryce Courtenay

First:  This is what happened.
 Last:  Cool, clear water bubbled over them, streams in the desert.