Writer Harlan Coben says he has ‘imposter syndrome’ about his work

Writer Harlan Coben has admitted he feels an “imposter syndrome” around his work, which has spawned series such as Myron Bolitar.

The 64-year-old, who has seen novels such as The Stranger, Fool Me Once and Safe adapted for the screen by Netflix, said he thought only bad writers believed in themselves.

Speaking to Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, he said: “I actually think only bad writers think they’re good.

“We all have a little bit of that imposter syndrome, and what’s interesting is it sounds like a paradox, but it’s not.

Author Harlan Coben said he thought only bad writers believed they were good (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

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“Because on the one hand, I’m always like, ‘I suck, I’m terrible, I hate this’, but at the exact same time I have the hubris to think ‘you’re going to spend 20 pounds, and you’re going to spend five or six hours reading it, or listening to it on audio, and you should’.

“And those seem to be a complete contradiction, but they’re not inside of a writer.”

He went on to say that he calls his books “the novel of immersion rather than crime or thriller”.

Coben explained: “I want my novel to be the one you take to bed tonight, it’s 11 o’clock, ‘I’m just going to read for 10 minutes’, and the next thing you know, it’s four in the morning, and you’ve been reading.

“And I love that feeling as a reader, and I love to give that feeling as a writer.”

The author picked Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road, Ain’t Nobody by Rufus And Chaka Khan and Teddy Swims’ The Door among his records to take with him on a desert island.

Coben’s The Woods is set to be the latest of his books to be adapted by Netflix when it is released next year, starring former Coronation Street actress Michelle Keegan.