The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel. By Uri Bar-Joseph. (Harper, 384 pages, $29.99.)

"I have come here to talk about the war, and nothing else." And with that, Ashraf Marwan — Israel's most unlikely spy — helped avert the country's destruction, providing early warning of a devastating surprise attack planned for the next day, during the Yom Kippur holiday in 1973.

In "The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel," Uri Bar-Joseph delves in the improbable but true story of Marwan, a chemical engineer who married into the Egyptian political elite before unceremoniously offering himself up to the Israeli intelligence service. (According to Bar-Joseph, Marwan called the Israeli embassy in London from a public red telephone booth during a trip to London in 1970.)

Bar-Joseph, a professor at the University of Haifa and former intelligence analyst with the Israeli Defense Forces, knows his stuff and peppers the story with telling details. Although the book might have been helped with fewer forays into the inner workings of Israeli office politics, "The Angel" provides a definitive history of a fascinating and little-understood character.

COLLEEN KELLY

Battle of Wills: Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and the Last Year of the Civil War By David Alan Johnson. (Prometheus Books, 360 pages, $28.)

"Battle of Wills" is engaging nonfiction that centers on the personalities of the two eminent generals of the Civil War, delving into their childhoods, focusing on examples set by their fathers and arguing that those relationships affected the course of the Civil War.

Robert E. Lee's father's was brilliant in the military but a bust as a civilian, cheating investors and eventually bankrupting his family, conduct unheard of for a wealthy Southern gentleman. Lee, who was second in his class at West Point, was brought up by his mother, who instilled a horror of dishonoring the family name. The need to do the right thing served Lee well but eventually led him to decisions that weakened his command, rather than ensuring that his army remained a fighting force.

“Battle of Wills” by David Alan Johnson

Ulysses S. Grant's father, Jesse, persevered over poverty and illness to found, lose and restore a successful tannery business. He also insisted that a somewhat aimless Ulysses go to West Point, where his son had a middling career. But the son absorbed his father's example of perseverance. Grant's goal was to destroy Lee's army, a goal he pursued even when mounting casualties became politically unacceptable.

This is a very entertaining work of nonfiction that covers much more than the last year of the war. Author David Alan Johnson avoids the trap of too much minutiae, keeping the narrative moving and offering interesting, sometimes novel, viewpoints about major figures of the Civil War.

BECKY WELTER