Hidden Valley Road

Inside the Mind of an American Family

By: Robert Kolker

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

#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 12 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 10 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, best-selling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.

©2020 Robert Kolker (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Hidden Valley Road is a riveting true story of an American family that reads like a medical detective journey and sheds light on a topic so many of us face: mental illness.” —Oprah Winfrey

“A feat of empathy and narrative journalism.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“Magisterial . . . A weave of gripping reportage and scientific detective story . . . Hidden Valley Road is destined to become a classic of narrative nonfiction.”—Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Intriguing!

Mental illness is so complex and this book discusses the insight of one family’s struggle with 6 members of their family having schizophrenia. While is focuses specifically on the disease, it also sheds light on how it effected the family dynamics in a significant way. Well written and great narration (even at 1.5x speed- how I listened to most of my books).

A Must Listen

This book was an emotional roller coaster ride. Spanning nearly a century of family history, mental illness and its treatment, perpetual sexual abuse and its consequences, and the hope of a possibility of understanding and ending major mental illness. I was fascinated by the family. I send blessings and hope their way for their pain and suffering. The author did a phenomenal job of weaving through the history, the science and the trauma. I really admire the commendable research done. It was a massive undertaking that is evident on each page. The narrator was easy to listen to. Overall a must listen! BTW, my grandmother had schizophrenia and I know the anxiety of entering your teens and twenties knowing what could potentially be your fate. God bless all those involved. Give them peace and comfort, now at least. Know you’re not alone.

Fascinating, Gut-Wrenching and Human Book

If anyone wants to understand schizophrenia a bit better, encounter research past and present and read/listen to lived experience of those with the diagnosis in their own voice and connect to perspectives as a family member about what it is like to live their experience, too, while meandering the mental health system, this is it! It’s good, bad, sad, ugly, and most importantly human.
I work in mental health in Colorado and this makes me want to work that much harder on behalf of the clients and families we serve with mental illness.
This one is near and dear to me for my own reasons, too. I’ll be reading it a second time.

fascinating and beautiful

I had a sister....there are no words to describe the impenetrable wall this conditiin/disease? creates.
thanks to the Galvan family for their candor and generosity. thanks to the scientists who continue the hunt for a cause and a cure.

Incredible story!

Beautifully written and such a mesmerizing story! As someone who studied neuroscience and specifically the drug interactions of people with mental illness, I can say that this compelling book is scientifically accurate and also incredibly compelling. Would highly recommend!

Great story well told.

This book is A must read for anyone trying to understand mental illness especially schizophrenia.

A very good read!!!

This book really opened my eyes into a world most of us don’t see it choose to see. Really worth the read!!!

What a story!!!

Amazing book with lots of interesting facts and information.
It gives you lots of details and it makes you to appreciate more your life.
Great performance: English is my second language, but I understood everything.
Awesome!!!

insight into insanity

Loved the narration.
I felt like a fly on the wall at Hidden Valley Rd.
I am proud of all the medical and research individuals and teams who have achieved advancements in understanding and treating mental health issues. This work demonstrates how important it is to participate in trials and studies.

Wonderful

Both engaging as a story- and filled with current information the science as well as how we live as families afflicted by condition.