For the best of Books and Arts this week, we debate whether an investigative journalist should have revealed the identity of the elusive and much loved author Elena Ferrante; we explore Primavera 2016, this year's exhibition of young Australian artists at Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney; we hear about the latest work from the Australian Dance Theatre, which deals with some rather heavy themes: objectification, dehumanisation and subjugation; and end with Tim Burton's latest film, an adaptation of the best-selling children’s book by the American writer Ransome Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

US writer Kaitlyn Greenidge responds to Lionel Shriver's Brisbane Writers Festival keynote in which she complained about identity politics dictating what writers can and can't write about; The Awesome International Arts Festival for Bright Young Things in Perth; Melbourne Festival dance that blurs the line between performer and audience; and Back to Back's most ambitious work yet, Lady Eats Apple.

Joshua Hammer: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu. Arts news: Van Gogh paintings recovered. Thomas Mullen's novel Darktown. The Vinyl Frontier: The rock and roll memoir.

The secret identity of Elena Ferrante and the politics of privacy; Primavera and the best young Australian artists; Kim Stanley Robinson's Top Shelf; and the book-to-film adaptation of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Science and art collide at the Penrith Regional Gallery, Emma Donoghue on her latest novel, and we investigate the caramel slice in Expressions of Interest.

Over 30 years since David Bowie recorded Let's Dance in the Australian town of Carinda, the township is putting on a festival 'Let's Dance Carinda', Kate Mildenhall's debut novel Skylarking was inspired by a headstone telling of a tragic event at a remote lighthouse, new work by Australian Dance Theatre called Objekt and Tracy K Smith shares her Top Shelf.

We hear about new works of theatre from Maurial Spearim and Ian Michael that delve into Australia's Aboriginal history, wade through the slush piles of publishing houses, and investigate how the economy influenced a generation of contemporary Chinese artists.

Why do fairytales continue to draw us in? A conversation about Snow White, and the enduring appeal of fairytales, with a writer, a theatre director, and two performers.

The Famished Road by Ben Okri won the Nigerian author the 1991 Booker Prize. It tells the story of Azaro the spirit child and the trials and tribulations of his impoverished family and community. It's the September novel in RN's African Book Club.

Candy Bower, Emilie Collyer, and Jim Lawson on writing about our national identity; Annabel Abbs discusses The Joyce Girl; Chigozie Obioma's top shelf; and David Levithan at the Melbourne Writers Festival