All Other Nights by Dara Horn is a stunning work of historical fiction told from the point of view of Jacob, a Jewish spy during the Civil War working with the Yankees. Horn’s elegant prose makes for a page turner because she tackles plots like tentacles of emotion. ( )

They smelled of “overripe fruit”? ( )

This lengthy novel follows Jacob Rappaport, a young Jewish man in Civil War America. Jacob has grown up in New York, but runs away from an arranged marriage and enlists in the Union Army. There, he is given an assignment: to murder his New Orleans-based uncle, who is planning to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, by joining him at the Passover Seder and poisoning him.
His first assignment is concluded quickly, but he is given another- to infiltrate a Jewish family of Confederate spies in Virginia by marrying one of them. Troubles ensue, and Jacob struggles with is conscience and his growing love for his bride. There is a lengthy detour to the western theater of the war for Jacob, before an attempt at redemption after he suffers a disfiguring injury. The historical fiction weaves in Judah Benjamin, the notorious Jewish right hand man of Jefferson Davis, and notes the antisemitism of the time including US Grant's shameful expulsion of the Jews from the territory he captures in the west.

I greatly enjoy all of Horn's work (with this novel, I have read all of her books), though this isn't my favorite. As I've noted before, her books get better as they go- this is the third one, and I found it a bit long and meandering at times- it would have benefited from more economy. The protagonist is not my favorite either- Jacob is frustratingly passive and incompetent, and his bride and her sisters are running rings around him in terms of spycraft.

Still, a good read and a satisfying book. ( )

How is this book different from all other Dara Horn books?
This time it's Civil-War-era US and more linear than before, but it's still a story about parents and children and how people fall in love. The history is how I like it: as it was to the people living it and not too intrusive. This is another very good book from Horn. ( )

When Jacob Rappaport's father decides Jacob should marry the daughter of one of his business parters, Jacob runs away and joins the Union Army. Caught up in some of the battles of the Civil War, when he is offered the chance to spy for the Union, he takes it, making some questionable decisions that he must live with. The war, his Jewishness, and his own decisions all affect the course of his life. ( )