Get a good book and a free hat.

Join now for $5.

We’ll make this quick.

First, enter your email. Then choose your move.

By pressing "Pick a book now" or "Pick a book later", you agree to Book of the Month’s Terms of use and Privacy policy.

Get a good book and a free hat.

Join now for $5.
undefined

You did it!

Your account is now up to date.

get the appget the app

Our app is where it’s at.

Unlock our Reading Challenge, earn prizes, and get notified of new books on our app.

Our app is where it’s at.

Unlock our Reading Challenge, earn prizes, and get notified of new books on our app.

Download on the App Store
Get it on Google Play

Already have the app? Explore here.

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

Nonfiction

Hidden Valley Road

by Robert Kolker

Excellent choice

Just enter your email to add this book to your box.

By pressing "Add to box", you agree to Book of the Month’s Terms of use and Privacy policy.

Volume 0
Volume 0

A free gift for you.

Yes, she’s embroidered.

No thanks, just checkout

Quick take

A deeply researched account of one family's experiences with the schizophrenia that enveloped their family.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, 400

    400+ pages

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

  • Illustrated icon, Cerebral

    Cerebral

  • Illustrated icon, Critically_Acclaimed

    Critically acclaimed

Synopsis

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.

Member ratings (13)

Nonfiction
Dead Wake
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Girl Who Smiled Beads
Thick
The Sky Is Falling
Small Fry
Too Much Is Not Enough
All That You Leave Behind
Doing Justice
Falter
The Players Ball
Bitcoin Billionaires
Leaving the Witness
City of Omens
Eyes in the Sky
On The Clock
Wild Game
My Friend Anna
Trick Mirror
Tightrope
Evicted
Big Friendship
Nonfiction
View all
Dead Wake
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Girl Who Smiled Beads
Thick
The Sky Is Falling
Small Fry
Too Much Is Not Enough
All That You Leave Behind
Doing Justice
Falter
The Players Ball
Bitcoin Billionaires
Leaving the Witness
City of Omens
Eyes in the Sky
On The Clock
Wild Game
My Friend Anna
Trick Mirror
Tightrope
Evicted
Big Friendship