ONE NIGHT ON THE ISLAND by JOSIE SILVER

“I think what I’m really scared of is that I’ve fallen out of love with love.”
“I’m worried that either I’m not going to be enough, or else that I will be enough and I’ll be alone forever.”

Wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL, Josie Silver has once again captured every single one of our senses with one of the most important novels you’ll read this year. She captured our hearts, our minds, her words acted like beacons making us stop, think, and take stock. This is not just a tremendously beautiful and poignant love story. This is a life story that will have you welling up with tears at the sheer splendour that this Author’s words conjure up with the imagery of the bountiful yet harsh nature and the personalities of the people of Salvation Island surrounding you and stealthily stealing your heart as you become utterly immersed in a unique and epic love story. A love story with two sides. The love that you must show yourself and the love that resides in your heart for another. Truly breath-taking!

‘Something has drawn us together for this perfect moonlit moment on these worn wooden steps, to this tender kiss that feels like it’s been here all along, waiting patiently for us to find it.’

Cleo an aspiring novelist is at a crossroads in life, she’s happy with where she’s at -well- in most respects, but is she really fulfilled or is she settling? Sometimes we can dream big but taking that step to achieve our dreams seems too overwhelming, or we don’t know which path to take in order to reach something that we truly crave. Not just that, we can happily plod along through life, settling, because who are we to cheekily believe that we can do it, deserve it or realise it? Do we actually believe that we deserve that big dream, do we think it’s ours to realise or does this big dream just live in our heads as that ‘happy imaginary place’ to disappear into?

‘Make yourself some promises. Tell the wind your secrets and the ocean your dreams.’

What starts as a crazy column idea becomes a monumental self-realisation for our Cleo, who leaves her beloved London for a remote Irish island in the Atlantic. The way in which Josie Silver writes this unique and epically beautiful occasion had us in tears of happiness whilst questioning parts of our own selves. The beauty of it is that we experience it through such vivid imagery and such heartfelt and poignant words.

‘I promise to listen to myself, to take the time to hear the voice in my gut because I know myself better than anyone and I always have my own best interests at heart…I also know that I am enough, and I’m brave and I will succeed.’

Mack, a renowned photographer, is on a break from his life in Boston, not self-imposed or by choice, rather it’s a journey that is breaking his heart, so he throws himself into seeking solace in discovering his ancestry and photographing the journey. He did not count on Cleo nor she on him. Sometimes we find what we are looking for at a moment in time that is not convenient, nor planned. Sometimes what we need is not what we ask for. Rather it finds us and breaks down our door. Unlocking invisible self-erected walls.

“And for a little while, he made me feel as if I’d swallowed stars.”

Beautiful. Heart-wrenching. Inspirational. Hopeful. Hilarious. Magnificent. Bravo Josie Silver!

“Someone exceptional told me a while back that my heart hadn’t got the memo…But I’ve got it now.”