“Beginning Middle End” is particularly attentive to the sounds of the natural world. The sonic version of the novel layers narrative and soundscapes that were recorded with binaural mikes, hydrophones, and geophones. Over the past year, we’ve collected field recordings from Sicily and the Aeolians: sea sounds, underwater currents, winds, volcanoes, fire, dust storms, rainstorms, church bells, fish markets. They are not meant to illustrate or enhance the narrative. Rather, they constitute a kind of emotional undercurrent.