“Hidden Valley Road,” which has been earning raves culminating in its selection by Oprah’s Book Club Tuesday, braids together the timelines — one chronicling the Galvin family’s growing horror as son after son succumbed to mental illness, the other tracking the scientific controversies over the origins of the illness itself. “It really became a history of debates, all centering on … nature versus nurture,” said Kolker. “’Is it genetics or is it trauma’ — or in another era, ‘Is it brain chemistry or is it bad parenting?’ It’s always the same debate, but it just shifts a little in each generation.”
“Schizophrenia devastated a family: Robert Kolker did their story justice,” April 7, 2020