Books from Ireland

Bell and Sigh are a young couple who decide to abandon conventional life and retreat to a remote house in the Irish countryside with their dogs. Leaving behind the city, their friends, and their families, they build a quiet world of their own, shaped by daily rituals, changing seasons, and the rhythms of the natural landscape. Nearby stands a mountain they are told offers a view of seven standing stones, seven schools, and seven church steeples. They promise to climb it, but year after year, the mountain remains unconquered. Spanning seven years, Seven Steeples follows the couple as their lives become increasingly intertwined with the land around them. With lyrical prose and a keen eye for the overlooked details of ordinary existence, Sara Baume explores solitude, intimacy, and the uneasy boundary between freedom and isolation. It is a contemplative novel about stepping away from society to discover what it means to build a life—and whether withdrawing from the world can ever truly bring us closer to ourselves.