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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Ordinary lives bear extraordinary fruit on Open Book this week,

from the preoccupations of small-town Australia

to the lives of black women in L.A.

And the adventures of an Albanian teenage runaway.

Plus, I get a lesson in proper English

from a master of clarity and style from America.

But we begin with an Australian writer who's famous for not being famous. Despite being a regular

top tip for the Nobel Prize for Literature and described as one of the best English language

writers alive, it's taken Gerald Mernain until his

80th year to have his back catalogue published in the UK. Even in his native country,

he's hardly a household name. There's no doubt Mnain has contributed to his own obscurity,

assuring the international literary circuit, he's never left Australia or been on a plane,

and at a recent academic conference on his work at his local golf club, he served behind the bar.

...