This is a fascinating novel. It is really a unique approach to a somewhat banal type of story that really got me thinking. I was very invested in the characters.

Lyrically written a quiet story of the two characters their isolated life in a home in the Irish countryside.Weread about the details of their quiet existence and the things they see in their daily lives.Unique special an author to follow.#netgalley #marinerbooks

Despite loving living in NYC and all the big city has to offer I often dream of living in a tiny home in the middle of no where with my books and not having to see anyone, I guess it is in the introvert in me. Sigh and Bell feel the same pull when they move to the Irish countryside to find peace and love amongst nature. A beautiful novel that people could say not much happens in, but to me all the action was in the development of their love story with each other and the world around them.

A quietly moving novel that is full of poetic descriptions of the Irish countryside and the beauty found in everyday moments. There really isn't a plot but if you are looking for a quiet, introspective novel then look no further.

A sweet poetic novel that holds a silence and comfort to the easy of the characters layered on top of a vivid sense of place. It feels like the perfect read to slow down and appreciate a simple day.

Highly recommend!! My first book to read by this author but definitely not my last!! Uniquely and beautifully written, this story and its characters stay with you long after you finish the book.

At the beginning of this tale, Bell and Sigh are just settling in to their new abode near the sea. We know nothing of their backgrounds, ages, temperaments or what brought them to this remote place…and we never find out throughout the book. We do know that Bell is a woman and Sigh is a man and they have two dogs, Pip and Voss. We learn a little more about them – Pip is a laid back lurcher, Voss a typical hyperactive, overprotective terrier. There is no dialogue in the book, no dramatic turns of fate, not even any disagreements of import between the couple.

Nevertheless we come to learn a great deal about this strange couple as we read. They don’t care much about possessions or housekeeping. In the first year of their residency several items in the bathroom had “plummeted down the toilet”, never to be retrieved and that Bell and Sigh “had lost interest in the activity of being reunited with their possessions. Unmarked boxes with their top flaps still taped shut had been relegated to the most-avoided corners of their least-used rooms. Neither of them, in an entire year, had suffered the absence of what these boxes contained, and so they ignored them”.

They do pay attention to their dogs and to their routines, taking Pip and Voss out for morning and evening walks whatever the weather – which does get very nasty at times, the only clue to what sea coast they might be on. Ireland, probably, but we never really know. They think about cleaning the cobwebs away from corners or sorting out their worn out clothes to be donated, but they never get around to actually doing anything and the house gradually slides into squalor.

The reader wonders where the landlord of this place is, and he does show up a couple of times to tend to the worst of the disrepair, but Bell and Sigh are otherwise left alone. Always looming over the house and the story is a mountain, unclimbed and unknown to the couple, other than its existence, until the end. No spoilers here.

So why read this book? Because of the writing; it’s prose poetry really with the occasional spaces between words and lines endemic to poetry. Who knew a list of insects, bacteria, mold and dust could be of such great interest as to lead the reader to look it over again just to see the words and feel their rhythm? In fact, nearly every line of this slender novel should be read at least twice to appreciate Sara Baume’s mastery of language.
Seven Steeples is a bit longer than it should be, but it’s one of those books that stays with you, makes you wonder how you would live if you were in an isolated house in the woods or on a rocky coastline, how you would spend your days and if you could actually do it. Recommendation: Read it.

Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the eARC.

A touching meditation on the bonds between people and nature, SEVEN STEEPLES is highly recommended for fans of literary fiction. You won't find a blockbuster plot here, or even much dialogue, but you will find a moving look at the passage of time and the landscape. The story, which spans seven years, examines how we may live in better harmony.

This book felt very quiet and intense, a little more so than I was expecting it to be. The language and the scenery was beautiful and I could really picture myself in t e middle of nowhere Ireland with Bell and Sigh. Sometimes the language felt like too much and it made it harder for me to truly absorb into the story. Thank you to Netgalley and Mariner Books for the ARC.

Seven Steeples is a breath of fresh air. In a publishing world where plot is king, and hooks, twists and page turners more or less required, I honestly don’t know how the author managed to get this read by an agent or publisher. But I’m very glad she did! As someone who once majored in literature, it was a delight to read an author who put language first.
As much a long poem as a novel; Seven Steeples details the lives of Bell and Sigh, two hermits with two dogs who survive off of welfare. In a rented and ramshackle home across from a cow farm, they live out their quiet days in comfortable squalor. The reader is never given any dialogue, and the two characters are treated much like the other elements of the landscape, much like the other species that each inhabit their own little patch of mountain. It was an intriguing and unusual way to deal with characters. At first, I kept waiting for one of them to speak, but once I realized that wasn’t going to happen, I sat back and enjoyed the beautiful landscape of this story. The author has an incredible eye for detail and this book has inspired me to look a little closer at all the seemingly inconsequential things that lay about my house, yard, and well-traveled paths.

"We must be willing to let go of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." (Joseph Campbell)

Bell and Sigh took to the Irish countryside for a reprieve from city life and all its clatter and noise. At best, it would be a temporary break to set their new relationship on wheels headed in the right direction........to bask in the ebb and the flow of love in its early stages.

So this budding couple packed up all their worldly goods in an old red van with two rescue dogs, Pip and Voss. They approached the seventy year old cottage with eyes wide open. It was in much need of repair and the outer buidlings looked non too stable to say the least. The interior was small and cramped and there appeared to be more of a draft inside than out. But when they stepped outdoors, once again, their eyes lifted upwards. There beyond them was the sight of a jaw-dropping mountain that seemed to bow in welcoming them. It would be a challenge over the years to climb it and partake in the panorama of its breathtaking views.

Sara Baume invites us into the lives of these two very adventurous people. They've taken on a pull away from the familiar to the draw of the unknown. We'll experience "a church of two" as they settle into their arc of differences and then into the strength of their drive to remain. Bell is a worrier with superstitious rituals and Sigh is the one with superior patience. And their love for their two dogs with contrary personalities just adds to the unexpected depth of this little novel.

Seven Steeples is filledwith the richness of the mundane of everyday life. When you shift from the demands of city life, your focus becomes that of the ever-changing whims of Nature. Both Bell and Sigh see more and experience more than they ever have before in life. And there they find a rhythm and a syncopation in Nature and in their small cottage as they rise each morning. "There was always so much to be thought about, to be decided upon." Beautifully rendered by Sara Baume. A little novella to be savored.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to HarperCollins Publishers and to Sara Baume for the opportunity.

They met against the backdrop of friends, at the foot of a low mountain, outside Dublin's city limits. They were "...curious to see what would happen when two solitary misanthropes tried to live together...On the day they moved in together-the idea, they might one day...climb the outcrop they looked over and that overlooked them..." "The house was not new to the mountain. It has sat up on its subjacent elevation for seven decades-a drab, roofed box girdled by countryside." In a van loaded with two dogs and scant possessions, Bell and Sigh left extended family and unsatisfying jobs to embrace a quiet life in the Irish countryside. They would live secluded lives depending upon welfare checks and dwindling savings. Did life turn them this way? Bell and Sigh, a desperately awkward couple.

"Their skill sets, in the beginning, were dissimilar. In the beginning, Bell took charge of the worry...black ice...power surges...worried about failing to sufficiently worry...Sigh intervened to take charge of the worry and Bell delegated herself responsibility for the daily slippage of domestic surfaces instead...". Their lives were filled with shared rituals including daily walks with or without dogs, repetitive meals and weekly shopping trips especially for "coffee, kibble, porridge, whisky."

Every evening [when] they walked, Bell and Sigh described to each other the weather, scenery and character of their route...small changes and seasonal changes as well. Every year, for seven years, they realized that the mountain remained unclimbed. Every year, for seven years, their run-down house further deteriorated with the window panes shivering and the heater ceasing. Seen from atop the mountain climbed in year eight, their crumbling existence could be viewed from afar.

"Seven Steeples" by Sara Baume is a beautifully written tome of two lonely misfits who decide to abandon city life for the quietude of a minimalistic existence. The sights and sounds of the natural world and the descriptions of the mountain "awaiting the couple" are exquisitely penned by Baume. Highly recommended.

Thank you Mariner Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Solitary with misanthropic tendencies? Nature? Dogs? Disappearing from society? It seemed like this story had been written for me, with characters I’d relate to easily.

Unfortunately, the book is more about style than story. Some other reviewers acknowledge that while loving the book. I didn’t love it, forced myself halfway through, then skimmed to the end. I probably would have liked the characters more in real life than I liked reading about them.

Thanks to Mariner Books and NetGalley for the early copy to review.

I was in the mood for this one. I like the premise, and even though it didn't go in the direction I thought it might, I enjoyed where it went, figuratively and otherwise. The author has a nice style too. Recommended.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

Seven Steeples is unlike any book I have read before. It very reflective and provides a quiet introspective reading experience. In it, a young Irish couple settle into a remote cabin next to a mountain. While they go into town sporadically for supplies, they have little interaction with anyone but themselves and their two dogs. This is beautifully written- the conversion to being more and more reclusive, disconnecting from family and friends, and observing nature take over their landscape. There is not much plot to this book, but it is a moving portrait of joint isolation and nature.

Thank you to Mariner Books via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

How fortunate that these two people, Bell (Isabel) and Sigh (Simon) met. Not everyone is lucky enough to encounter a soulmate and have the opportunity to forge a life together on their own terms. Nothing much happens during the course of this story, nothing that isn't the result of the turning of the seasons, the natural world's influence. The seven years depicted as they settle in, walk their dogs, plan their meals, deal with encroachment of time and lichen -- there's a sweetness to their decision to separate from family and friends and be content with what their small world provides. Sara Baume is a writer of extreme beauty and Irish music, able to create characters so vivid in their solitude. Ever since being enthralled by her debut, Spill Simmer Falter Wither, I've read everything she's published and am amazed by her perceptive take on the world.

This was nice & quiet. But it was also nice & quiet, haha. I flew through the first part because it was feeling so perfectly suited to my mood, but then I was anxious for Things to happen. This will definitely find its audience!

Unique, Beautiful and Meditative - this is a book unlike any other.

In Seven Steeples we meet - Bell and Singh. They are loaners, they are misanthropes.
The two choose to make a home together and we are along for the ride in the rural countryside as time move forward, seasons change and the utter onslaught of nature, time, and life itself move the plot forward.

Except there really isn't a plot. It's just beautiful imagery and prose describing lives. I think each reader will take away something utterly different from the book. Whether its the inevitability of life and time or the sheer energy needed to carve out a home in the country side or the more positive aspects of relationships and partnerships.

If you crave a meditative almost poetic story, like the unusual and unique, ready to read something somewhat slow yet always in motion, then #SevenSteeples if for you! #NetGalley #NetGalleyReads #Mariner #marinerbooks

Sara Baume has made a name for herself by writing quiet books (Spill
Simmer Falter Wither, 2015; A Line Made by Walking, 2017) about people (and usually their dogs), who live in the margins. The older I get the more tolerant I am of quiet places, in life and in books, so I was pleased to find a.new offering by an author I have enjoyed in the past.
For me, the fundamental question examined in The Seven Steeples is this; is it better to live alone or among people? In search of an answer, we follow a young man and woman, Bell and Sigh, not quite a couple at the beginning as they move with their respective dogs to an isolated hamlet in Ireland better suited to their introverted natures. Their small house at the base of a small mountain is, like their possessions, well worn by with age. The mountain is an ever present omniscient observer. When they arrive, they say they will climb the mountain together but do they?
Everything both inside the house and out, whether exotic or mundane, is fair game for Baume's observant eyes. Along with the passage of the seasons, we follow the predictable and unpredictable changes in the characters, animals, and nature as Bell and Sigh slowly meld their possessions and themselves. Things deteriorate and are either replaced or not. The slow transitions not noticeable in the day to day are laid bare.
As I close the book I feel as though I have completed a pilgrimage of sorts. I sit and imagine the story into the future. The answer to the question? Well, that depends but clearly not all who live in the margins are lost.

Thank you to Sara Baume, NG and Mariner books for a complimentary copy of The Seven Steeples for my enjoyment and review. Publication is slated for 4/26/22.

Seven Steeples by Sara Baume is a novel that takes us into the isolated world that can be wrapped around us if we so choose. It is just beautiful.

This is the first book I have read from this author, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We follow along as to unconventional outsiders, prone to the loner avenue, Bell and Sigh, as they separate themselves with their canine companions, and the transformations that occur to them and around them thereafter.

This is a narrative that is rich in nature, observations and reflections. It delivers a prose that is at times lyrical, at times refreshing, and at times darker and almost foreboding.

I really enjoyed the unique and descriptive way the author presented the story. It was a tapestry woven with detail, emotion, and depth.

I will most certainly read more from her in the future.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Mariner Books for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 4/26/22.