Seven Steeples

Bell and Sigh met one summer and, the following winter, move into a remote house in the Irish countryside with their dogs. Both prefer their own company and hold a low opinion of other people, so they set aside the lives that were waiting for them and build a new one around daily routines and rituals. Their old friendships and family ties have gradually slipped away.

They reach the house on a crisp January morning and look out at the surroundings. Beyond the fields, a mountain rises from the Atlantic so gradually and quietly that it seems to have spent centuries growing taller by flattening itself. The couple promise each other they will climb it. Yet seven years pass, and the summit is still untouched.

The novel follows Bell and Sigh through the turning seasons as they come to know the small world around them, while their interest in the wider world slowly fades.

At its core, the book is about love and the endurance of the natural world. Through Bell and Sigh and the life they create, Sara Baume asks what it means to step away from the paths society lays out, and how a person can grow over time through devotion to another human being and to a particular landscape.