Memoirs of a Failed Diplomat

Migrant by necessity, cosmopolitan by choice, Dan Vittorio Segre has truly had an extraordinary life. Memoirs of a Fortunate Jew told the story of his childhood and adolescence: from his secular, bourgeois Jewish upbringing to his enforced emigration to Palestine, and his sudden awakening to the Zionist movement and his own religious convictions. Primo Levi called it "e;taut and illuminating... memorable... written with the humility of he who confesses himself and with the honesty of he who bore witness"e;. With his ever present humour, irony and intelligence, Segre now describes returning to liberated Italy in British uniform; his first disastrous diplomatic experiences as Israel's cultural attache to Paris; his deep involvement with Israel's developing relations with African states on the eve of their independence; accusations against him of being a spy leading to his dismissal from the Foreign Ministry; and his subsequent career as an academic.