The Journey: From Ismaeleya to Higienópolis - The story of an Egyptian Jew

Whenever I am asked: "Where are you from?" I feel insecure and hesitate to answer. Strange as it may sound, for me the answer is neither simple nor direct. I was born in Cairo Egypt, in 1944, yet I don’t have an Egyptian nationality and can hardly speak the national language, Arabic. I have a French nationality, without ever having lived in France. Although my surname sounds Italian, I don’t speak the Italian. My mother tongue is French, but I prefer to read in English. I have lived in Brazil since I was eight, but I speak Portuguese with an accent as incorrigible as it is undefined: it gives no clue to my origins as it is typical of no place. In Brazil, I studied at the English school, graduated as an Engineer at the University of Sao Paulo, chose the Brazilian nationality and obtained a Brazilian passport. Here I settled and created new roots. So this book of memoirs is a complex answer to that simple question.