Hidden Valley Road cover art

Hidden Valley Road

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Hidden Valley Road

By: Robert Kolker
Narrated by: Sean Pratt
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

12 children.

6 of them diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Science's greatest hope in understanding the disease.

One of Barack Obama's Favourite Books of 2020

TIME 100 Must-Read Books Of 2020 Pick

New York Times best seller

Selected as Oprah's Book Club Pick

For fans of Educated, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Three Identical Strangers.

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 the other, 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 Institutes of Mental Health. Their story offers a shadow history of the science of schizophrenia, from the era of institutionalisation, lobotomy and the schizophrenogenic mother, to the search for genetic markers for the disease, always amidst 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.

©2020 Robert Kolker (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Medical Mental Health Professionals & Academics Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Health Thought-Provoking Heartfelt Inspiring

Listeners also enjoyed...

Lost Girls cover art
That Bird Has My Wings cover art
The Witness Wore Red cover art
A Fever in the Heartland cover art
The Delphi Murders cover art
Sandy Hook cover art
Slonim Woods 9 cover art
Lost Connections cover art
Troubled cover art
Lost Girls: The Maine Murders cover art
Complex PTSD cover art
This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health cover art
The Kennedy Heirs cover art
Schopenhauer's Porcupines cover art
Life Is in the Transitions cover art
An Unquiet Mind cover art

Critic reviews

"Hidden Valley Road contains everything: scientific intrigue, meticulous reporting, startling revelations and, most of all, a profound sense of humanity. It is that rare book that can be read again and again." (David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon)

"An extraordinary case study and tour de force of reporting." (Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind)

"This book tore my heart out. It is a revelation-about the history of mental health treatment, about trauma, foremost about family and a more-than-worthy follow-up to Robert Kolker's brilliant Lost Girls." (Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me and Give Me Your Hand)

All stars
Most relevant  
What an amazing story ! Heartbreak and wondrous in turn. Hard to believe that it's a true story.
Excellent paced narration, difficult subject matter handled very sensitively.

Fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This book was fascinating to listen to if you’re interested in mental health..
It was put together in an ordered way, that enables you to follow the story of a family that faced many challenges.
Big praise for the narrator.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Such an interesting read. It was a little confusing as it seemed to flit a little but would definitely recommend!

recommend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Absolutely brilliant! Love, love, LOVE this book! I couldn't stop reading it! It's so well researched and written - from the scientific side, historical overview of the illness to insights into what a mental illness does to a family.

Having one person in the family sub coming to schizophrenia can change a family forever and influence generations to come. The Galvins, a family of 14, had 6 members of the family with schizophrenia. Their path is painful and scars will be with them forever, influencing even the next generation.

The fear, guilt, feelings of helplessness, and loneliness are all something the surviving members of this family carry with them. To put all their family secrets, some of which are extremely disturbing, out in the open, share them with the world, is very brave and gives hope to other families influenced by this illness. The author did an amazing job at talking to all of the surviving members of the family, their friends, and scientists, collecting their stories, and shaping them into this brilliant book!

Schizophrenia might be the mental illness we know the least about. Still, through the book, we see that some, although extremely tiny, progress is being made into trying to understand it and maybe even at some point treat or prevent it.

At times disturbing, heavy, but brutally honest and raw, this book should find its way to your reading list. It's fascinating and informative. You'll learn and be shocked. But, it opens a conversation that is very much needed when it comes to removing the stigma from mental illnesses.

The narrator does an extremely well job and made it very easy to listen to the audiobook.

Amazing book! A must read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

very good book and interesting sad but captivating story.
Didn't miss a thing.well recommended

my top book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Such unique insight, heart wrenching yet also leaves you feeling full of hope and compassion, excellent narrating or such difficult topics

Game changer

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is a fascinating insight into the world of mental illness combined with the very real humans who suffer, watch on and try to understand it. Although this is focused principally on Schizophrenia the author delves deeply and incisively into the society and thinking of the 60s,70s and 80s in America. Impeccably narrated by Sean Pratt I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in human beings and how they cope with the unimaginable effects of mental illness, nature v nurture and perception of others

Wow what a book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Enjoyed the book. Not my regular type of genre but it was very educative. It really shed more light on how biology can help determine ones destiny. A powerful book in the 21st century.

A subject often avoided . The effect and strain of mental health on a family.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Enjoyed this. Great overview for Schizophrenia and generally classification and diagnosis of mental illness.

Brilliant for A Level Psy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I would highly recommend this book to prospective readers: insightful, thought provoking and tender. A fabulous book!

An Amazing Story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews