He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”<\/p>\n
![\"Reese](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/skynews-reese-witherspoon-harlan-coben_7059981.jpg\")
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Image:
\n Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye<\/p>\n
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.<\/p>\n
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.<\/p>\n
“People want you to stay in your lane\u2026 as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.<\/p>\n
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”<\/p>\n
More on Reese Witherspoon<\/p>\n
Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.<\/p>\n
![\"Witherspoon](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/skynews-reese-witherspoon-harlan-coben_7059986.png\")
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Image:
\n Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try<\/p>\n
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.<\/p>\n
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”<\/p>\n
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here\u2026 no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”<\/p>\n
![\"Coben](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/skynews-harlan-coben-reese-witherspoon_7059983.png\")
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Image:
\n Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground<\/p>\n
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”<\/p>\n
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”<\/p>\n
Read more from Sky News: When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”<\/p>\n Image: Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.<\/p>\n “Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up\u2026 but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”<\/p>\n While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.<\/p>\n
Bob Vylan’s gig postponed<\/a>
Tainted Love star dies<\/a>
Strictly stars to quit<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Coben](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/skynews-harlan-coben-reese-witherspoon_7059982.png\")
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\n Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’<\/p>\n