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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Hello, on today's program, an ambitious new novel about three generations of one family, told by five voices over seven decades, travelling from 1940s Algeria to modern-day America.

We talk to author Claire Massoud about her very personal family saga, this strange

eventful history. And a hundred years since his death, we explore the influence of Franz Kafka,

as a new short story collection by ten modern writers, including Ali Smith, Elif Bertman and

Yian Lee, takes inspiration from his work.

We turn first to Claire Massoud. She was long listed for the Man Booker Prize back in 2006

for the Emperor's Children, her novel about three friends in Manhattan in the months leading

up to the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Centre. But her latest, this strange eventful history, tells

a longer, sprawling story. It's a capacious, multi-generational tale about a French Algerian family

who were tangled up, both in the tumult of the 20th century and their own unspeakable secrets.

A French household with Algerian roots was the setting for her second novel, The Last Life,

but this time the material is closer to home.

The portrait of the fictional Casas draws from Massoud's own family

...