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.

Listen first on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

Today we discuss angry men, bad mothers and the unlived lives of children.

But if all that sounds a bit too much like family dysfunction during lockdown, fear not,

there's some music too. Later, Francis Buffard joins us to chat about the redemptive power of

opera in his new book, Light Perpetual.

But we start with a sprinkle of Hollywood glamour.

Ethan Hawke's breakthrough role was playing a troubled adolescent in the film Deb Poet Society at the age of 18.

It kicked off a highly successful on-screen career and made him famous.

But he always wanted to be a writer.

His first two novels, The Hotest State and Ash Wednesday, published when he was 25 and 32, respectively, met with some critical acclaim.

Now, at the age of 50, he returns with his third novel, A Bright Ray of Darkness, the tale of

actor William Harding, also the hero of the Hottest state, who now finds himself at the

centre of a tabloid scandal after cheating on his rock star wife. Although Harding is a fictional

creation, the attentive reader can't help but notice similarities to Hawke's own professional

...