ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Welcome to Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal

Posted on 13th August 2026 By Nicola

Welcome to Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal is published by Vintage and is out now. I purchased my own copy.

Zoologist Charlotte Walker has taken up a year-long fellowship on the tiny, remote island of Tuga de Oro to study the endangered gold coin tortoises in the jungle interior.

She is warmly embraced by the tight-knit community of islanders – and their animals – who are keen to adopt Charlotte as Tuga’s first vet.

But Charlotte has a family secret that connects her to the island. She is determined to solve the mystery: she just needs to make sure she stays focused on her research, and absolutely does not fall in love with the first man she meets…

When Welcome to Glorious Tuga was first published and everyone was saying how good it was it still didn’t quite make it onto my radar, but then I got this weird urge to read it and how glad I am that I did as I enjoyed it so much and found it to be an ideal summer read.

Tuga de Oro is the world’s most remote (fictional) inhabited island, forming part of the British overseas territory. So remote, in fact, that there’s no way off for six months of the year, between Island Open and Island Close. It’s to Tuga that Dr Charlotte Walker sails (after a terrible journey of endless seasickness) to study an endangered species of tortoise. She has another reason for being there too, a tiny nugget of belief that the answer to a family mystery can be found there.

I thought this was a delightful read, so gentle and evocative of the languid feel of island life. Charlotte’s voyage is also the homecoming of Dr Dan Zekri, the nephew of the island’s only doctor, returning to his homeland to become the new doctor. Their stories are mingled with those of the island’s residents to create a full picture of what life on Tuga is like. Charlotte is a FFA (folk from away) and so she has a bit of an uphill struggle to fit in, but Dan didn’t expect to feel quite so much the FFA and taking over from his uncle means he has to build the trust of the islanders.

The end of the story leaves lots of unfinished business so the sequel (book two of a trilogy), Island Crossing, will be very welcome. Welcome to Glorious Tuga is utterly charming. Tuga felt like a place from a bygone age and the characters were fabulously well-drawn and quirky. Just lovely in every way!

Francesca Segal is an award-winning writer. She is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Innocents (2012) and The Awkward Age (2017), and a memoir of NICU motherhood, Mother Ship (2019). Her writing has won the 2012 Costa First Novel Award, a Betty Trask Award, and been longlisted for the Women’s Prize.

Segal says: ‘Writing this trilogy was a deliberate reaching out for joy. The world can feel very bleak, and bringing Tuga to life became my own magical portal to wide beaches, crystal seas, endless sunshine, and most vitally, to a warm, eccentric community of good people mostly just trying to do their best. Tuga de Oro was a refuge for its first settlers, and I hope will offer refuge for readers, too.’