Harlan Coben facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Harlan Coben
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| Born | January 4, 1962 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author |
| Alma mater | Amherst College |
| Period | 1990–present |
| Genre | Mystery, thriller |
| Notable works | Myron Bolitar series of novels |
| Notable awards | Anthony Award (1996), Edgar Award and Shamus Award (1997) |
| Spouse | Anne Armstrong-Coben |
Harlan Coben (born January 4, 1962) is an American writer of mystery novels and thrillers. The plots of his novels often involve the resurfacing of unresolved or misinterpreted events in the past, murders, or fatal accidents and have multiple twists. Among his novels are two series, each involving the same protagonist set in and around New York and New Jersey; some characters appear in both.
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Early life and education
Coben was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, and was raised in Livingston, where he graduated from Livingston High School, with his childhood friend, future politician Chris Christie. While studying political science at Amherst College, he joined Psi Upsilon fraternity, along with the writer Dan Brown.
Career
After Amherst, Coben worked in the travel industry, in a company owned by his grandfather.
Coben was in his senior year at college when he realized he wanted to write. His first book was accepted for publication when he was twenty-six. His thriller Play Dead was published in 1990, followed by Miracle Cure in 1991. He then began writing a series of thrillers featuring a former basketball player turned sports agent, Myron Bolitar, who often finds himself investigating murders involving his clients.
Coben has won an Edgar Award, a Shamus Award and an Anthony Award. He wrote a short story, "The Key to My Father," which appeared on June 15, 2003.
Tell No One, his first stand-alone thriller since the creation of the Myron Bolitar series in 1995, was published in 2001. Director Guillaume Canet made a French-language film based on the book, titled Ne le dis à personne, in 2006. Coben followed Tell No One with nine more stand-alone novels. His novel Hold Tight, released on April 15, 2008, was his first book to debut at number 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.
Awards
Coben won the 1996 Anthony Award in the category "Best Paperback Original", for Deal Breaker, the first volume of the Myron Bolitar series; it was also nominated for an Edgar Award in the same category. Fade Away won the 1997 Shamus Award and the Edgar Award for "Best Paperback Original", was nominated for the Anthony Award and the Barry Award in the same category, and was nominated for a Dilys Award. The following Myron Bolitar novel, Back Spin, won the 1998 Barry Award and was nominated for the Dilys Award and the Shamus Award. In 2002, Tell No One was nominated for the Anthony Award, the Macavity Award, the Edgar Award and the Barry Award. In 2010, Live Wire won the crime fiction award, the RBA Prize for Crime Writing, worth €125,000.
Movies and TV series
The first movie based on one of Coben's books was the French-language film Tell No One.
Coben's 2003 book No Second Chance became the basis for the 2015 French miniseries of the same name. Two years later the same happened to Just One Look.
Coben is the creator of the British crime drama television show The Five, which first aired in April 2016 on the Sky 1 channel in the United Kingdom. Coben also created the French-British crime drama television show Safe, which premiered on Netflix in 190 countries on 10 May 2018.
Deal with Netflix
In August 2018, Coben signed a multi-million five-year deal with American company Netflix. Under the deal, 14 of Coben's novels would be developed into original Netflix series or films, with him serving as executive producer on all projects. The first title released under the deal was The Stranger, based on his novel of the same name, which premiered in January 2020.
| Title | Country of origin | Language | Release date | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Stranger | United Kingdom | English | 30 January 2020 | ||
| The Woods (Polish: W głębi lasu) | Poland | Polish | 12 June 2020 | ||
| The Innocent (Spanish: El inocente) | Spain | Spanish | 30 April 2021 | ||
| Stay Close | United Kingdom | English | TBA | In production | |
| Gone for Good | France | French | TBA |
Personal life
Coben lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey, with his wife, Anne Armstrong-Coben, a pediatrician, and their four children.
