BOOK REVIEW - Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

by Fran Hauser
Guest Editor

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

This book has been recommended to me more than any other since I started my bookstagram. All I have to say is Oh.My.Word. It's a remarkable true story of a mid-century American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia.  It’s heart wrenching to read about the suffering of the children and the impact it had on the rest of the family. The Galvin family’s experience is one of the biggest medical mysteries of our time and the family members were studied by the National Institute of Mental Health in an attempt to find a cure.

It made me realize how little I knew about schizophrenia going in. I thought it was the same as split personality disorder. It’s not. It’s a very complicated mental illness that causes hallucinations and delusions in addition to other symptoms like jumbled thoughts and speech, and difficulties expressing emotions. 

I think this book will go a long way in helping people better understand mental illness and have more empathy and compassion for people who are mentally ill (which includes a significant portion of the homeless population).  

“Our relationships can destroy us, but they can change us, too, and restore us, and without us ever seeing it happen, they define us. We are human because the people around us make us human.”

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Fran Hauser is a bestselling author, startup investor and champion of women. For more of her book recommendations, follow @fransbookshelf on Instagram.

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