Review by Booklist Review
Bell and Sigh didn't know what their futures held, but they knew they wanted to share them. After meeting on a hiking trip at the base of a stubby Irish mountain, they discover their mutual distaste for their boisterous families, their shared misanthropic streaks, and their enduring respect for nature. Most importantly, they realize they can build a life together, on their own terms. They rent a dilapidated cabin on a mountain south of Dublin, contributing their dogs, a van load of mismatched household belongings, and their ideals to their new homestead. Bell and Sigh are thrilled to carve out a slice of land for themselves, adopting gardening, composting, and an increasingly tolerant attitude towards bugs and mice. Baume (A Line Made by Walking, 2017) leads readers through eight years of the couple's life together as they neglect most of modern society and build a deep, rich domestic life. Lush imagery and poetic punctuation choices are ever-present in Seven Steeples, appealing to fans of Paulette Jiles and Geraldine Brooks. Charting the path between independence and dependence, self-reliance and self-interest, Baume sets readers down in a near-untamed wilderness and shrinks the world down to a garden, a cabin, and its profoundly resilient occupants.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
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
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