Hidden Valley Road

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family is a 2020 non-fiction book by Robert Kolker. The book is an account of the Galvin family of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a mid 20th-century American family with twelve children (ten boys and two girls), six of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia (notably all boys). The family became the subject of researchers investigating a genetic origin for schizophrenia. The book was selected for the revival of Oprah's Book Club. It debuted at number one on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. The book was also named one of "The 10 Best Books of 2020" by The New York Times Book Review and as one of the year's most critically acclaimed non-fiction books. Robert Kolker was originally approached by the two Galvin sisters, Margaret Galvin Johnson and Lindsay (née Mary) Galvin Rauch, to write about the family's struggle and ordeal; he used it as a backdrop to explore the medical research and understanding about mental illness. Kolker interviewed family matriarch Mimi Galvin as part of his research; she shared the various theories and rumors that had spread about their family and how they all struggled to get answers about the condition. Studies implicated two genes, SHANK2 and CHRNA7, which were passed on to the boys from their mother.