In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.

But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA

was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.

Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family?

When lies are still being told to this day,

who do you believe?

I wouldn't even know where to start,

and I'm with the IRA.

Steakknife.

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The Shirelles there welcoming some motherly advice.

Well, our mums are often the person we turn to in times of trouble, but as we'll be discussing on today's open book,

it's a trickier version of the mother-daughter relationship that tends to make the best fiction.

They certainly don't fare too well in Damascus, the latest book by Australian author Christos Cholkis,

which we're discussing next. We tend to bandy the description Damascian moment around

as a fleeting moment when enlightenment descends and everything changes,

reminiscent perhaps of the opening event in Chalkas' breakthrough novel and bestseller, The Slap.

In his latest multi-perspective epic,

the author explores the road to Damascus more directly,

turning to the biblical story of Saul, and his spiritual transformation into Paul the Apostle,

...