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I'm not sure how this ended up on my To-Read list, but there it was in a stack of holds brought out to my car courtesy of the library curbside service-one of the pandemic's stranger and more endearing phenomena; I knew nothing about this story when I turned to the first page.

Readers, I couldn't put it down.

Hidden Valley Road is the story of the Galvin family of Colorado Springs, CO: Don, Mimi and their twelve � yes, twelve� children born between 1945 and 1965. By the early 1970s, six of the twelve siblings would be diagnosed with schizophrenia and the Galvins would be gutted by a terrible, incurable disease.

The extent of this family's suffering is almost unimaginable: as they entered their late teens and early twenties, six brothers (ten Galvin boys were born before two girls, Margaret and Mary, arrived in the mid sixties; after Mary's birth in 1965, Mimi Galvin finally heeded her obstetrician's repeated warnings and had a hysterectomy) fell to the blows of mental illness. Hallucinations, violent outbursts, depression, and psychotic breaks resulted in multiple institutionalizations for each young man at various facilities around the state, a regimen of drugs that would eventually wear down the organs of several of those who survived into their later years, killing them with heart disease, and the shattering of the American Dream of a promising, gifted, successful family. Both sisters suffered sexual abuse and rape at the hands of at least one of their brothers. One son murdered his girlfriend and then shot himself. Several of the boys were subjected to molestation by a trusted priest and family friend.

The misery is massive, and yet Robert Kolker's masterful storytelling is so finely-nuanced, empathetic and well-paced that I never felt as if I were gawking pruriently at the scene of an accident. The story unfolds through the perspectives of multiple family members, with Mary, who changed her name to Lindsay while in boarding school, and her sister Margaret taking the lead. Alternating with the family's history is the search for the causes and treatments of schizophrenia, a quest that reads like a slow-burn thriller. The researchers who explore the Galvin family genetics, biology and psychology are fascinating characters whose work has transformed the science and treatment of schizophrenia. Kolker shows us how the theories behind the causes of schizophrenia have changed over time, resulting in dramatic and often devastating shifts in treatment, set against the backdrop of mental illness treatment in the United States- a terrible legacy of punishing institutionalization and drug therapy that harmed far more than it helped.

Ultimately, however, this is a story of hope and resilience. Years of determined research brought some answers, possible solutions, and a lessening of the stigma of schizophrenia for those who suffer from it, and their families who are often blamed for bringing it on. Kolker conveys the claustrophobic fear the Galvins faced as one brother after another broke under mental illness, but he does it in a way that doesn't elicit pity from the reader. Tragedy plagues this family, and yet they reached out and allowed their story to be told, without shame or judgment. It takes tremendous courage and generosity of spirit to understand that one's own tragic story can be of value to others who may be suffering, too.

A fascinating medical mystery and a beautiful rendering of an American family. Highly recommended.