“No man from an island is an island,” Francesca Segal writes in “Welcome to Glorious Tuga,” a delightful heart-warmer set on a fictional tropical isle in the South Atlantic, where the closely related residents are all entangled in each other’s business. “Small islands are drama factories. It’s one of our major industries,” one of the islanders explains to a new arrival.
“Glorious Tuga” is a perfect vacation book – even if you’re not going anywhere. Segal transports readers to Tuga de Oro, a tiny, steamy British territory nearly 7,000 miles from England and 2,000 miles from the nearest landmass. Tuga isn’t exactly a paradise, but it has its enchantments. Founded on “the principles of compassionate collectivism,” the community is largely made up of the descendants of diverse refugees who fled “murderous European colonialism” over the centuries.
Segal highlights another characteristic of islands: They are “places you flee to, or places from which you flee.” They are also places that attract runners or searchers. Charlotte Walker, a London veterinarian and herpetologist in her late 20s, admits to being both. The official reason for her journey to Tuga is a one-year fellowship to study endangered gold coin turtles, but she also hopes to discover the identity of her father, who she has reason to believe – after a recent slip by her mother, a wealthy, high-powered, queen’s counsel barrister – may be from Tuga.
Charlotte arrives on the last cargo ship before hurricane season, which will further isolate the remote island for the next six months. While these ships transport a few passengers to and from England for jobs and schools, their more pressing task is to supply the island with necessities, which include flour, chocolate, tools, tractors, medical supplies, contracted specialists like dentists and opticians, and much more.
Desperately seasick on the voyage, Charlotte is tended by fellow passenger Dan Zekri, a doctor in his late 30s. He’s returning to the island after 15 years in England to take over as chief medical officer, a job his uncle has held for 40 years. Dan and Charlotte hit it off so well that Segal seduces us into thinking that this is going to be a nice, happy love story. Not so fast.
With a veterinarian at its center, a cast of distinctive local characters, and an immersive plot filled with twists and turns, “Welcome to Glorious Tuga” evokes “All Creatures Great and Small” with a touch of “South Pacific.” Instead of motorcars and overindulged house pets, there are free-roaming donkeys that can be hopped on and off for local transport like rideshare bicycles, and lumbering, ancient turtles.
Although Charlotte is trained as a theoretician rather than a clinical practitioner, she comes to realize that to really help the islanders, she needs to tend to their precious goats, sheep, pigs, and other farm animals, along with an ailing pet tortoise named Martha. With the exception of working animals, most non-native mammals are no longer allowed on Tuga, in order to protect the island’s fragile ecosystems. (Cats, a major threat to birds, have been banned altogether.)
Charlotte has a hard time convincing the islanders – and readers – why the endangered gold coin turtles, commonly known as Chinese three-striped box turtles, are important. It’s the eccentric characters who steal the show here.
Among the complicated web of interrelated islanders, who are thankfully listed in the book’s dramatis personae, is Garrick Williams, the pompous local pastor who harbors a shameful secret. His sister, Moz, a teacher who has influenced generations of students, is married to Dan’s uncle, Saul Gabbai, the overtaxed, outgoing doctor whom no one wants to see replaced, especially by Dan. After being off-island for so long, Dan is considered FFA – Folk From Away – which raises questions about what constitutes a home, and whether one can go home again. Dan is committed to improving local medical care, but his cause isn’t helped by a serious misstep in his personal life.
Segal, the author, is a British American writer (and daughter of Erich Segal of “Love Story” fame) whose previous novels, “The Awkward Age” and “The Innocents,” offered nods to Henry James and Edith Wharton. With “Welcome to Glorious Tuga,” she has spun a pleasurable tale about the tantamount importance of finding – or creating – a sense of community and belonging, wherever you are.