Welcome to Glorious Tuga (Hardback) - Francesca Segal

THE DESTINATION READ OF 2024. Your paradise awaits ... 'A magical novel, so uplifting, heartwarming, funny . . . This feels as if it was written specifically to give comfort' MARIAN KEYES 'Sparkling and sophisticated ... reminded me of the pleasures to be had in reading' JESSIE BURTON Set sail for a tropical paradise where secrets don't stay hidden for long... London vet Charlotte Walker has taken up a fellowship on the tiny, remote island of Tuga de Oro to study the endangered gold coin tortoises in the jungle interior. She can claim the best of reasons for this year in paradise - what better motivation than to save a species? - but the reality is more complex. For Charlotte has a secret that connects her to the island, and has finally determined to solve the mystery that has dominated her life. But she will have little time for any of her declared or covert investigations. Inconveniently attracted to the new island doctor, Dan Zekri, Charlotte immediately finds herself the subject of local speculation and gossip. And not only do Tuga's tortoises need attention but so do the island's dogs and donkeys, not to mention the islanders themselves, determined to win Charlotte over with endless deliveries of cake until she relents and becomes vet to all their animals. A complete and vivid world to escape to, Welcome to Glorious Tuga celebrates a fictional island, and the eccentric community who live there. Enchanting, uplifting and very funny, this is a captivating novel about love, belonging, and what it really means to come home. 'A gorgeous book ... brilliantly and thoroughly imagined. I didn't want to go home' NICK HORNBY 'Imagine a modern-day Jane Austen washed up on a fictional island ... Warm, clever, thoughtful, funny, moving and brilliantly written' ELIZABETH DAY 'Pure joy in book form, a hilarious, inviting holiday for the spirit' NAOMI ALDERMAN

About the Author

Francesca Segal is an award-winning writer and journalist. 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 novel 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.'