Schmaltzy book about student on island (9)
I believe the answer is:
emotional
'schmaltzy' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'book about student on island' is the wordplay.
'book' becomes 'tome' (a tome is a book).
'about' says the letters should be written backwards.
'student on island' becomes 'ional' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'tome' written backwards gives 'emot'.
'emot'+'ional'='EMOTIONAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for emotional that I've seen before include "Arousing strong feelings" , "Heart-warming" , "Arousing strong feeling" , "Deeply feeling" , "Arousing intense feelings" .)