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 "taut and illuminating… memorable… written with the humility of he who confesses himself and with the honesty of he who bore witness".

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 attaché 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.