By Khalida Sarwari
Training with world-class snipers by day, hobnobbing with Silicon Valley’s elite by night—it’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. In Gregg Hurwitz’s case, there’s one more credential to add to that already impressive list: New York Times bestselling author. It’s a far cry from Saratoga, the city Hurwitz grew up in, but a close look into his work reveals his hometown is seldom far from his mind.
On the heels of the Jan. 30 release of his latest book, “Hellbent,” Hurwitz is in the midst of a national tour that has him returning to his roots in the South Bay in early February, with a couple of appearances scheduled in San Jose and Palo Alto. The Saratoga native now resides in Los Angeles.
“I love coming home because I get to see my whole crew from high school, which is really fun,” he said. “I have a lot of family in the area and friends and people I work with. There’s a good blend of big Silicon Valley brain trust people and friends and family; it’s a really fun mix up here.”
Described by Hurwitz as “a man on fire vengeance thriller,” “Hellbent” is the latest novel in Hurwitz’s Orphan X series, which centers around the character Evan Smoak’s development into an assassin who uses his skills to fight corruption after he is enrolled in a top-secret operation known as the “Orphan Program” at age 12.
“It’s a very emotional book,” Hurwitz said of “Hellbent.” “It’s deeply, deeply personal.”
In preparation for writing each of his Orphan X novels, Hurwitz said he puts himself through rigorous training, from sneaking onto demolition ranges with Navy SEALs to swimming with sharks in the Galapagos Islands and going undercover into mind-control cults.
“A lot of that is to give readers a front-row seat to the action,” he said. “Those things help me bring the telling detail that’s necessary. I want the books to have a ring of verisimilitude.”
The books seem to ring true with publications such as the Washington Post and Associated Press and have drawn comparisons to “Batman,” ”The Bourne Identity” and “The Equalizer.” And “Orphan X” was picked up by Warner Bros. with Bradley Cooper set to direct and Hurwitz to write the screenplay adaptation.
It wouldn’t be his first film adaptation. Hurwitz also wrote the script for “The Book of Henry,” a 2017 film starring Naomi Watts and Sarah Silverman. He wrote the script 18 years ago when he was living in Palo Alto, he said, and the film makes many references to Saratoga. He is now working on adapting the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS,” for HBO.
Having authored 19 books, Hurwitz is already working on his 20th—the fourth installment of the Orphan X series. His novels have been shortlisted for numerous literary awards, graced Top 10 lists and been published in 30 languages. He also has written a number of comic books for DC and Marvel.
“It’s amazing because the only thing I’ve wanted to do is be a novelist, so it’s been great,” he said. “It’s been a total delight to do the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.”
Hurwitz’s ambitions were inculcated in Saratoga, where he attended Argonaut Elementary School and Redwood Middle School. He graduated from Bellarmine College Preparatory in 1991, after which he went on to receive degrees from Harvard University and Trinity College, Oxford. Hurwitz credits his high school’s English department having an impact on his career.
“I would say Bellarmine had a big impact on me, more than even Harvard and Oxford because the English department was so amazing,” he said.
Hurwitz holds fond memories of growing up in Saratoga in the 1980s. He recalls going to see the San Jose Repertory Theatre as a season ticket holder and visiting Candlestick Park to see the San Francisco Giants play. He was also a regular at the Saratoga Library, because he said his family forbade him to watch TV, with a few exceptions.
“We watched the Red Sox and Hitchcock and basically those two things, if you mix in bourbon, that’s 90 percent of my personality,” he said.
But, it’s Los Angeles that Hurwitz has called home for the past 20 years. He lives there with his wife, two daughters and their two Rhodesian ridgebacks.
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