# Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family - Hardcover

by **Robert Kolker** (Author)

**#1 _NEW YORK TIMES_ BESTSELLER - **OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK **\-** ONE OF _GQ_'s TOP 50 BOOKS OF LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE 21st CENTURY **\-**** The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease.**

"Reads like a medical detective journey and sheds light on a topic so many of us face: mental illness." --Oprah Winfrey

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins--aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic. How could all this happen to one family?

What took place inside the house on Hidden Valley Road was so extraordinary that the Galvins became one of the first families to be studied by the National Institute of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalization, lobotomy, and the schizophrenogenic mother to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amid profound disagreements about the nature of the illness itself. And unbeknownst to the Galvins, samples of their DNA informed decades of genetic research that continues today, offering paths to treatment, prediction, and even eradication of the disease for future generations.

With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.

### Author Biography

ROBERT KOLKER is the _New York Times_ bestselling author of _Lost Girls_, named one of the _New York Times_'s 100 Notable Books and one of _Publishers Weekly_'s Top Ten Books of 2013. As a journalist, his work has appeared in _New York_ magazine, _Bloomberg Businessweek, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, O_ magazine, and _Men's Journal._ He is a National Magazine Award finalist and a recipient of the 2011 Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

**Number of Pages:** 400

**Dimensions:** 1.7 x 9.4 x 6.5 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** April 07, 2020

## Details

- **Price:** 32.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 32.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family - Hardcover

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