The Wonderful World that Almost Was by Andrew Durbin review – the queer artists who shaped New York cool

A tender but unflinching account of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek, forgotten stars of the 1960s scene

The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis review – one of the boldest writers at work in English today

This fable-like novella about technologies of illusion and a life-changing friendship in Mexico City is enchanting

What went wrong in Israel? A genocide scholar examines ‘what Zionism became’

In his new book, Omer Bartov tracks how a liberatory strand of Zionism transformed into an extremist ideology that he sees as responsible for genocide in Gaza

Hotel Exile by Jane Rogoyska review – the remarkable story of a wartime institution

From haven for intellectuals fleeing Hitler to the HQ of the feared Abwehr, the changing fortunes of a Parisian icon

See You on the Other Side by Jay McInerney review – the clumsy finale of a classic New York series

The bright young things of 1992’s Brightness Falls are now in their 60s in this verbose, clunky novel that seems more interested in lifestyle than inner lives

Ghost Stories by Siri Hustvedt review – life after Paul Auster

What’s it like to lose your partner of more than 40 years? The novelist and essayist reflects on going from ‘we’ to ‘I’

John Keats’s love letters returned to owner after being stolen in the 1980s

Romantic poet’s letters to Fanny Brawne, dated between 1819 and 1820, had been stolen from a Long Island estate

Houdini’s reappearing act: David Haig’s new play lays bare the magician’s dispute with Conan Doyle

An interest in spiritualism drew the escapologist and the Sherlock Holmes author together but, as actor-playwright Haig’s drama Magic shows, also threw them into conflict

‘Deliciously dark’: how Freida McFadden’s twisty thrillers gripped millions of readers

The author, who recently revealed her real name to be Sara Cohen, began writing to escape from her work as a medic, and now has a huge global fanbase

From Manifesto to Mr Loverman: Bernardine Evaristo’s best books – ranked!

From the secret gay life of a British-Caribbean man to that controversial shared Booker win, the author has blazed a trail across the literary landscape. Here are seven of her top titles

Primavera review – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is school-of-Salieri backdrop for period musical biopic

The composer has a musical relationship with a teenage violinist in this lifeless adaptation of a novel by Tiziano Scarpa

The Illuminated Man by Christopher Priest and Nina Allan review – an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard

The biographer’s terminal illness and death is woven into this original and moving account of Ballard and his work

Son of Nobody by Yann Martel review – Life of Pi author discovers a long-lost poem from Troy

An epic poem about the Trojan war is merged with the domestic heartbreak of the scholar who discovers it in this ambitious, structurally problematic novel

‘The Moon and The Zoo’: Simon Armitage poem celebrates 200 years of ZSL

Zoological Society of London commissions poet laureate for animation to mark its 200th anniversary

‘How much have we missed?’: book tunes in to overlooked world of female birdsong

Authors set out to correct under-representation of female sounds – and found some surprising revelations