Hidden Valley Road inside the mind of an American family [LP]

"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. There was a script for a family like the Galvins--hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmo...

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Main Author: Kolker, Robert (Author)
Format: Books Print Book Large Print
Language: English
Published: New York : Random House Large Print, [2020]
Edition: First large print edition.
Subjects:
Summary: "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. There was a script for a family like the Galvins--hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they all tried to play their parts. But behind the closed doors of the house on Hidden Valley Road was a far different reality: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, and hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the ten Galvin boys, one after the other, were diagnosed with schizophrenia. And the other six children stood by, horrified, with no way of knowing whether they would be next. What took place 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. In a tour de force of narrative nonfiction, award-winning journalist Robert Kolker... tells the intimate story of the Galvins alongside the epic tale of science's quest to uncover the true nature of a mystifying disease. Each mentally ill brother emerges as wholly individual, with remarkably different expressions of the same disorder. The two youngest Galvins, the only girls, are indelible characters: best friends, both victimized by their brothers, who make sharply different choices about how to cope. The Galvins' story crests in a breakthrough that, thanks to their unique DNA, offers hope of eliminating schizophrenia forever."-- Back cover.
Physical Description: xxvii, 592 pages (large print) : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 9780593341445
0593341449
Author Notes: 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.