What’s in an opening line?

London smelled of nothing, which is to say it smelled of everything melded together into an indistinguishable aroma.

— Jeremy Bradley-Silverio Donato
from the novel My Memory Told Me a Secret

What’s in an opening line? In this first sentence from my debut novel, I wanted to stir feelings of what London is like as a place, a habitat, a background. My Memory Told Me a Secret is about a man whose life is turned upside down when he discovers that the man he loves has given him HIV. London becomes the city in which all of his experiences of dealing with a life-threatening illness are played out. He runs in London’s parks, goes to its bars and pubs, utilises its hospitals, works in its financial district, and falls in and out of love in its stately buildings.

The first time he read the novel, a friend of mine wrote me, ‘Ha! That’s true. This city does always smell like everything and nothing at the same time.’ It was then that I knew I’d evoked the right emotion in my readers.

My Memory Told Me a Secret is published by Eiffel Tower Press and is available at this link and wherever good books are sold.

Visit Jeremy Bradley-Silverio Donato’s website or find him on social media @jeremycbradley.