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.

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Hello, as this winter of discontent seems to drag on and on, today we're going to be

refocusing on life's simple pleasures, the good stuff that's right in front of our noses,

such as that glorious, still-to-be-read pile of books on our shelves.

I'll be finding out how busy people managed to

devour novel after novel, much-needed advice as I begin my journey here on Open Book. We'll also have

a reading recommendation to get us over the finish line that is February and find out what it's

like to win a big literary award during a pandemic. But we start with the booker-winning Australian author Richard Flanagan.

His new novel, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, follows a dying woman, Francie,

surrounded by her three children, who all have very different opinions about how she should

be cared for in a final months.

Anna, the eldest sibling, is also grappling with anxiety about a vanishing world, a loss of

human values and a deeply unsettling and trippy affliction involving parts of her body.

In the cracks of this seemingly bleak narrative, though, there are notes of everyday optimism

...