Score: 5/5 Bookmarks

Steam Level: 🍆🍆 /5

Thank you to Ballentine Books and Penguin Random House Audio for gifting me review copies of One Night on the Island by Josie Silver.

I’m convinced that Silver is fueled by the tears of her readers. Why else would she make me sob through every one of her novels? Before this one I had recently read The Two Lives of Lydia Bird and yep, I sobbed my way through that one too.

Cleo has been shipped off to a remote island off the coast of Ireland to write a story about finding, and marrying, yourself. It’s part of a dating column she regularly writes for an online publication back in London. But when Cleo arrives at Otter Lodge, an even more remote spot on the already remote island of Salvation, she finds that there is someone else staying there.

Photographer, Mac, has come from Boston to stay on the island that was his ancestor’s home. He’s separated from his wife, and generally having a shit time of things. He’s also trying to do a bit of soul searching and be by himself for a while.

It quickly becomes apparent that not only aren’t there any other accommodations on the island, but the boat isn’t able to come back for a while due to the stormy weather. Cleo and Mac have no choice but to share Otter Lodge, which they do with open hostility.

Over the weeks they become friendly with each other, but also with the other islanders, and start to learn more about themselves and open up to the possibilities of the future. It’s a healing and restorative trip for both of them, which was truly moving and beautiful to read.

The first half was a slow build-up, but really set the scene wonderfully. The second half was just a roller-coaster of emotions, and as I mentioned I shed more than a tear or two at various points.

I just love Silver’s writing, and she’ll be an auto-read author for me from now on.

The audiobook was narrated by Eleanor Tomlinson and Davis Brooks, and it was just magical. It comes in at 10 hours and 21 minutes, and if you enjoy audiobooks I can’t recommend this one enough. Eleanor Tomlinson also narrates another of Silver’s novels, One Day in December. You can download the audiobook right now by clicking here, or get a physical copy via the button below.

Synopsis:

Spending her thirtieth birthday alone is the last thing that dating columnist Cleo wanted, but she is going on a self-coupling quasi-sabbatical--at the insistence of her boss--in the name of re-energizing herself and adding a new perspective to her column. The remote Irish island she's booked is a far cry from London, but at least it's a chance to hunker down in a luxury cabin and indulge in some quiet, solitary self-care while she figures out her next steps in her love life and her career.

Mac is also looking forward to some time to himself. With his life in Boston deteriorating in ways he can't bring himself to acknowledge, his soul searching has brought him to the same Irish island in search of his roots and some clarity. Unfortunately, a mix-up with the bookings means both solitude seekers have reserved the same one-bedroom hideaway on exactly the same dates.

Instantly at odds with each other, Cleo and Mac don't know how they're going to manage until the next weekly ferry arrives. But as the days go by, they no longer seem to mind each other's company quite as much as they thought they would...

Written with Josie Silver's signature warmth, charm and insights into the human heart, One Night on the Island explores the meaning of home, the joys of escape and how the things we think we want are never the things we really need.