A glorious dual biography of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek that explores queerness, beauty, what brings people together and what drives them apart.

The work of photographer Peter Hujar defined downtown New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Paul Thek was an American sculptor and painter. Hujar and Thek met in 1956 and shared a strong intellectual and artistic connection that influenced the work of both artists. The Wonderful World That Almost Was follows the development of the intense friendship - and romance - between them, from their first encounter in Miami to the painful end of their friendship in the mid-1970s. It was during that period that Hujar and Thek produced some of their most famous and significant works, and this biography traces the ways in which these artists' work directly and indirectly influenced both one another and the wider cultural sphere, and features the large circle of friends and artists they shared, from Andy Warhol and Fran Lebowitz, to Susan Sontag and David Wojnarowicz.

"This dual biography explores their entanglements and enduring impact on the art world in a colourful portrait of an era when everything seemed possible" - Monocle

"Sharp... Durbin's book probes beneath the mystique of these figures to capture their lives and personalities with stealthy, sustained force, showing that meaning can exist - sometimes all the more intensely - on the margins" - Literary Review