First Paragraph, Tuesday Teaser -- The Gods of Heavenly Punishment

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading
This week I've started The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein. The publisher sent me the book free in return for a fair review, which I'll publish on Sept. 11.
Here's the intro:

Photo from Amazon

Hamburg, New York
May 1935

The climb felt almost arduous, the engine juddering and restarting four times during the creaking ascent up. But when they reached the top it was worth it, as it had always been worth it: they were so far above the ground that the poor, patched and battered world seemed as small and harmless as a toy train set.

So far, I think the writing is really beautiful.

Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays. Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Open to a random page of your current read h and share a teaser sentence from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.
Here's a teaser from page 43:

You should feel lucky, her mother had whispered during their initial omiae meeting, a year after Andrew's departure. By that point they'd met with a half-dozen candidates, all of whom (the matchmaker regretfully informed them afterwards) politely  declined a second meeting. But Kenji -- an Osaka builder with working-class origins and a staunch determination to grow beyond them -- had clearly been enamored from the start; watching her sip her tea and light her cigarette and use her fork and knife, all with the same sort of fascination a child watches a paper lantern show. For most of the meeting he'd seemed too shy to address her. But as they paid the bill he finally mustered the courage: hadn't she found living amid all those Westerners dirty, and a little smelly? Or had she just gotten used to it after a few years?

What do you think?