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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Join me in my time machine today as we journey from 14th century, plague-ridden Europe,

with very contemporary resonance, to mid-century Kentucky,

with a rediscovered classic about slavery's legacy that paved the way for Tony Morrison and Alice Walker.

Back we begin in New York in 1993

with a story set to an urban symphony

of basketball thuds, city streets and hip-hop.

The Falconer is the debut novel by former sports writer Dana Chapnick.

Drawing rave reviews and comparisons to the catcher in the rye,

it follows in the grand tradition of coming-of-age tales set in The Big Apple.

Heroin Lucy, half Jewish, half Italian,

and describing herself as a pizza bagel,

is the star of her school's basketball team. But that doesn't confer the popularity it might

for a male athlete. Instead, her time is spent with posh Parsi, the object of an unrequited crush,

...