During our recent vacation, my wife and I decided we needed something new to watch. The first thing that popped up when we turned on our Airbnb condo TV was a promo for the new Netflix limited series “I Will Find You.”
I’ll admit it. I almost kept scrolling.
The series is based on a novel by Harlan Coben and the last Coben adaptation I watched, set in England, just didn’t do it for me. But I’m a big believer in second chances.
After 15 minutes, I was hooked.
Then I mentioned the show to a friend, who casually stated, “You know Harlan Coben’s Jewish, right?”
ADVERTISEMENT
I did not.
So, as I often do, I opened my laptop and typed a question into Google: “What’s Jewish about Harlan Coben?”
Turns out, quite a bit.
More than a mystery writer
For starters, Coben isn’t simply a bestselling mystery writer who happens to be Jewish. In a 2022 interview with “The Guardian,” he described his Jewish identity as cultural rather than religious, explaining that Judaism is simply part of who he is because of the world in which he was raised.
That explains something I had never noticed.
Coben’s books aren’t marketed as Jewish novels. They’re thrillers built around missing people, family secrets and impossible twists. But beneath those twists are Jewish characters, Jewish families and, often, unmistakably Jewish themes.
In an interview with The Forward, a national Jewish News site, Coben made that point plainly, saying every one of his books includes Jewish characters. He also noted that his longtime series hero, sports agent Myron Bolitar, frequently slips Yiddish expressions into conversation.
Jewish themes beneath the twists
Sometimes those themes become even stronger on screen.
When Netflix adapted Coben’s novel “The Woods,” the setting moved from suburban New Jersey to Poland. That decision gave the story an unexpected Holocaust vibe, that I always struggled to explain, until I found a full analysis published by “The Forward,” on that exact topic, adding another layer of meaning to an already suspenseful story.
The more I searched, the more another pattern emerged. Coben’s mysteries may be famous for their plot twists, but they’re really about family.
The story behind the stories
In that same interview with “The Guardian,” Coben acknowledged that much of his own life finds its way into his fiction. One example stood out. Coben lost both of his parents at a relatively young age, but his fictional hero, Myron Bolitar, gets to keep his. In an essay published on his personal website, Coben says that those scenes became a way of holding onto the family life he wished had lasted longer.
Which brings me back to “I Will Find You.”
I started watching because Netflix suggested another thriller.
I kept watching because I discovered one of today’s biggest mystery writers has quietly been weaving Jewish identity, family and memory into his stories all along. And that just somehow makes a difference in how I watch now.
