I was introduced to Josie Silver’s work when I picked up the audiobook of her debut novel, ONE DAY IN DECEMBER, and found myself unapologetically weeping as I listened to its unbelievably romantic conclusion. So I was at least sort of prepared for the similarly emotional journey of her latest book, ONE NIGHT ON THE ISLAND. But if this is your first encounter with Silver’s meltingly romantic novels, a word to the wise --- best to read this one in a place where you can feel comfortable having a good cry.

The journey here is both literal and figurative. It opens with British magazine writer Cleo Wilder, who is on the verge of turning 30, assigned by her editor and inspired by Emma Watson to take a multi-week retreat culminating in a “self-coupling” ritual. Cleo has spent the better part of the last decade writing a dating column, so the idea of producing a piece celebrating her relationship with herself is intriguing --- even if the destination her editor has in mind is far from luxurious.

"[I]f this is your first encounter with Silver’s meltingly romantic novels, a word to the wise --- best to read this one in a place where you can feel comfortable having a good cry."

The magazine is sending Cleo to an island off the coast of Ireland, which is so tiny that it’s barely a dot on the map. The fittingly named Salvation Island is windswept and isolated, but at least it will give Cleo an opportunity to reflect on the bittersweet feeling of turning 30, an age that her father, who died when she was just a toddler, never reached. And she’ll have some time away from the hustle and bustle of London, completely alone.

Or so she thinks. It turns out that the cottage her editor rented has been double-booked, by a brash (but undeniably ruggedly good-looking) American photographer, Mack Sullivan. Mack is also on Salvation in search of solitude, though not entirely willingly. His wife has asked for a separation, and, being forced apart from his two young sons, he decides to visit the island his grandmother’s people came from, the seemingly magical place she told him about in bedtime stories. Mack is ostensibly on Salvation to take photographs for an upcoming exhibition, but he’s also there in order to find out where he came from --- perhaps so he can figure out where he’s going.

Cleo and Mack bump heads almost literally; Otter Lodge is not nearly big enough for two strangers. However, it’s the only lodging for rent on the island, and the ferry heads back to the mainland just once a week --- and then only when the highly temperamental weather allows. As days stretch into weeks, the two establish at first a tense truce, then a tentative friendship, and finally something more, aided and abetted by the kind, tight-knit villagers they both come to know and love. But Cleo and Mack come from vastly different worlds and are on the island for vastly different reasons. Their love could never work, could it?

Silver does, in fact, set up a dynamic that shouldn’t work within romance conventions, and it’s likely that readers will have plenty to talk about when they reach the somewhat unconventional ending. But that’s just part of what makes ONE NIGHT ON THE ISLAND feel fresh. Perhaps its greatest defining characteristic is that both Mack’s and Cleo’s emotional arcs are mostly to do with their relationships to, and understanding of, themselves. They arrive on Salvation Island rudderless and adrift, and they have to learn to chart their own course, regardless of whether they’re together or apart.