most beautiful novel opening

[Otto]

The opening sentence of  Günter Grass' novel "Der Butt" (1977) has
been awarded with the title: "most beautiful opening sentence in a
German novel".

The sentence is:

"Ilsebill salzte nach"

If I'm not wrong the novel hasn't been translated into English yet. It
is not listed here:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1999/bio-bibl.html

The novel is a postmodern version of the Grimm-tale "The Fisherman and
His Wife":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fisherman_and_His_Wife

    Manntje, Manntje, Timpe Te,
    Buttje, Buttje in der See,
    myne Fru de Ilsebill
    will nich so, as ik wol will:

Second is Kafka's opening of "The Metamorphosis" and third Siegfried
Lenz's story "Der Leseteufel", the first story of his early
short-story collection "So zärtlich war Suleyken" (1955):

"Hamilkar Schaß, mein Großvater, ein Herrchen von, sagen wir mal,
einundsiebzig Jahren, hatte sich gerade das Lesen beigebracht, als die
Sache losging."