From the Publisher
Seven Steeples is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read….Baume’s descriptions of landscape are lovelier than I can express; you simply have to read them yourself.” — New York Times Book Review
"Haunting and dreamlike and wonderful to read…[Seven Steeples] powerfully recalls the middle act of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, that heart-stoppingly moving depiction of time passing through an empty house, of loss accumulating. Baume offers up an astonishing prose poem that keeps close religiously and lovingly to the physical throughout." — The Guardian
"With calm scrutiny and a vividly beautiful poetic touch…[Sara Baume] succeeds wonderfully." — Wall Street Journal
"Exquisitely detailed...one of the brilliant particularities of Seven Steeples is its intelligent and satisfying portrayal of time." — New York Review of Books
“It takes both daring and humility to write a book as unique as Seven Steeples. In unfailingly precise and lyrical prose, and with a religious attention to even the humblest things of this world, Sara Baume pays homage to nature, to hearth and home, and to the miracle of a love engendered by the union of two solitaries.” — Sigrid Nunez, author of the National Book Award winner The Friend
“Seven Steeples is a portrait of a life, a house, a landscape, and of time itself. The accumulation of years feels palpable, as if we are watching the sifting grains of a sand clock, within this tender, hypnotic, and wholly original novel.” — Aysegül Savas, author of Walking on the Ceiling and White on White
“A triumph….I was utterly charmed by the gentle rhythms and precision of this intricately wrought existential inventory.” — Olivia Sudjic, author of Sympathy and Exposure
“In its unique evocation of human and natural life, Seven Steeples somehow captures the strangeness of being alive in this world at this time. Among those rare books that makes you feel that you’re seeing everything through new eyes.” — Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat
“Subtle and luminous, playful and profound, Seven Steeples brings to life the symphonic voices and rhythms of nature. An exquisite tribute to the life in all things, and a testament to the worlds we build together.” — Roisin Kiberd, author of The Disconnect
“[Baume] takes the everyday and makes it sing. She takes our normal lives and makes them glisten…Seven Steeples is about what it means to tread gently; with intention; on equal footing with every creature we share our days with. The writing is unsettling good; the attention to detail is like no other.” — Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of Thin Places
“Lush imagery and poetic punctuation choices are ever-present in Seven Steeples, appealing to fans of Paulette Jiles and Geraldine Brooks...Baume sets readers down in a near-untamed wilderness and shrinks the world down to a garden, a cabin, and its profoundly resilient occupants.” — Booklist (starred review)
Aysegül Savas
“Seven Steeples is a portrait of a life, a house, a landscape, and of time itself. The accumulation of years feels palpable, as if we are watching the sifting grains of a sand clock, within this tender, hypnotic, and wholly original novel.”
Kerri ní Dochartaigh
[Baume] takes the everyday and makes it sing. She takes our normal lives and makes them glisten…Seven Steeples is about what it means to tread gently; with intention; on equal footing with every creature we share our days with. The writing is unsettling good; the attention to detail is like no other.
Sigrid Nunez
It takes both daring and humility to write a book as unique as Seven Steeples. In unfailingly precise and lyrical prose, and with a religious attention to even the humblest things of this world, Sara Baume pays homage to nature, to hearth and home, and to the miracle of a love engendered by the union of two solitaries.
Olivia Sudjic
A triumph….I was utterly charmed by the gentle rhythms and precision of this intricately wrought existential inventory.
The Guardian
"Haunting and dreamlike and wonderful to read…[Seven Steeples] powerfully recalls the middle act of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, that heart-stoppingly moving depiction of time passing through an empty house, of loss accumulating. Baume offers up an astonishing prose poem that keeps close religiously and lovingly to the physical throughout."
Doireann Ní Ghríofa
In its unique evocation of human and natural life, Seven Steeples somehow captures the strangeness of being alive in this world at this time. Among those rare books that makes you feel that you’re seeing everything through new eyes.
Booklist (starred review)
Lush imagery and poetic punctuation choices are ever-present in Seven Steeples, appealing to fans of Paulette Jiles and Geraldine Brooks...Baume sets readers down in a near-untamed wilderness and shrinks the world down to a garden, a cabin, and its profoundly resilient occupants.
New York Times Book Review
Seven Steeples is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read….Baume’s descriptions of landscape are lovelier than I can express; you simply have to read them yourself.
Roisin Kiberd
Subtle and luminous, playful and profound, Seven Steeples brings to life the symphonic voices and rhythms of nature. An exquisite tribute to the life in all things, and a testament to the worlds we build together.”
Wall Street Journal
"With calm scrutiny and a vividly beautiful poetic touch…[Sara Baume] succeeds wonderfully."
Library Journal
04/01/2022
Shortly after they meet and recognize they are kindred spirits who crave solitude, Bell (Isabel) and Sigh (Simon) decide they have had enough of waitressing, factory work, and yes, even their families and friends. Taking a chance on a life alone together, they rent a lichen-encrusted cottage in a remote part of Ireland at the foot of a mountain they promise themselves they will someday climb. Together with their two dogs, they set up housekeeping with discards from the very people with whom they've cut ties and begin a new minimalist life with few modern distractions. Every aspect of the flora and fauna they observe on their daily walks is described in language so mesmerizing that even a bird poo stain on laundry becomes a work of art. As the years pass, their comical neglect of the most basic details of daily living binds these two sweet misanthropes ever closer together. VERDICT Award-winning novelist Baume's gifts as a visual artist can be seen not only in the poetry of her majestic words but also in her creative use of spacing that enhances this lovely novel that is made for this time in history of pandemic-triggered isolation.—Beth E. Andersen
