Nikolski, author Nicolas Dickner

The novel, itself isn’t about beaches but I loved these paragraphs at the beginning.

“The window lets in the monotonous, rhythmic sound of the waves rolling over the stones.”

“Every beach has a particular acoustic signature, which depends on the force and length of the waves, the makeup of the ground, the form of the landscape, the prevailing winds and the humidity in the air. It’s impossible to confuse the subdued murmur of Mallorca with the resonant roll of Greenland’s prehistoric pebbles, or the hollow growl of the Irish coast.”

“The surf I hear this morning is easy enough to identify. The deep, somewhat raw rumbling, the crystalline ringing of the  volcanic stones, the slightly asymmetrical breaking of the waves, the water rich in nutrients — there’s no mistaking the shores of the Aleutian Islands.”