Harlan Coben says tragedy of parents’ deaths helped him write better
The author recalled how he was in his 20s when his father died of a heart attack, at the age of 59, in 1988.
American thriller writer Harlan Coben says he has learned that “tragedy is a very cruel but effective teacher”, after his parents’ deaths.
The bestselling author is known for his Myron Bolitar thriller series and novels-turned-Netflix shows such as Fool Me Once and recent release Missing You.
The author recalled how he was in his 20s when his father died of a heart attack at the age of 59 in 1988.
He told the Big Issue this was “the most traumatic” loss, adding: “Maybe because it was the first one. It came out of nowhere.”
“I had quite a bit of tragedy in my 20s,” Coben said.
“Things moved along fairly smoothly until then, I led a fairly normal American suburban life, but I did something like seven eulogies that decade. My dad died, my mum died, and a lot of people in my life died.
“So that probably also shaped me. Tragedy is a very cruel but effective teacher. I think that helped push me and made my writing better.”
He also said: “I’ve come to the conclusion with grief that it’s like you lose a limb, right? You lost your arm. You can learn to go on without that arm, you’re going to learn to do things with the other arm and still have a happy, productive life. But that arm’s not growing back.”
Coben has more than 80 million books in print worldwide, including Win, The Boy From The Woods, Run Away, and Tell No One, and has a deal with Netflix to be a producer on the series the streaming giant makes.
His other TV projects include Stay Close, about a husband who goes missing, with James Nesbitt and Cush Jumbo; blackmail story The Stranger, with Richard Armitage and Siobhan Finneran; and Safe, starring Michael C Hall and Amanda Abbington, about a surgeon whose daughter goes missing – all on Netflix.
Coben said he continues to get “excited about my books being adapted for television” as he enjoys seeing people bringing his creations to life, and actors taking the characters in new directions.
He added: “When Netflix pushes a button, it will be in 230 million households in 190 countries.
“This is not my first time, but that still jazzes me. I hope it always does.”
The recently released Missing You stars Armitage and Sir Lenny Henry, and focuses on a detective whose fiance resurfaces under strange circumstances.
In Fool Me Once, Michelle Keegan played a military combat pilot suffering from PTSD when her husband (Armitage), from a wealthy family, is murdered.
It was one of the most-watched programmes on the streaming giant last year.
Coben’s The Five, about friends who reunite after finding out that one of their group, who went missing when they were children, could be alive, starring Tom Cullen, was released on Sky1 in 2016.
Read the full interview with Coben in this week’s Big Issue, out now.
