Wild Card Book Club-Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

Welcome to our next Wild Card Book Club meeting where we'll be diving into the intriguing pages of Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker with Booksellers Diane and Amy. Join us in person to discuss this captivating true story that reads like a novel. Let's delve into the lives of the extraordinary Galvin family and explore the complexities of mental illness. Whether you loved it or found it challenging, we want to hear your thoughts! Don't miss out on this lively book discussion with fellow bookworms at . Reserve your spot today!

$30 Ticket includes a copy of Hidden Valley Road and $5 towards your first cocktail at .

• Come to meet new people and have a great conversation!
• Discussion led by Rediscovered Books Booksellers, Diane and Amy
• Seating is limited to 12 participants, registration is required for each person.
• Haven’t finished the book? Come anyway, but we cannot promise no spoilers.
• Must be 21 or older to attend.

If you have already purchased the book from Rediscovered Books, please email a copy of your receipt to [email protected] and we will issue you a gift card equal to the cost of the book after you have registered.

About the Book:

#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.

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.

With clarity and compassion, bestselling and award-winning author Robert Kolker uncovers one family's unforgettable legacy of suffering, love, and hope.

Host or Publisher Rediscovered Bookshop