Somers Library Book Club Author Appearance: Robert Kolker

The Somers Library Book Group is delighted to announce that Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family, joins the Zoom Book Group Meeting on our October meeting. This real life story describes the Galvin family, who's six of their 12 children were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and their lifelong effort to face the challenge and treatment of this disease. The book also explores how blood from the Galvin brothers - a rare case of multiple close family members with schizophrenia - has allowed researchers to study possible causes of the condition. Kolker interviewed members of the family and many involved in the research, diagnosis and treatment of this disease. Hearing him speak, one is struck with the tenderness, empathy and the depth of research one would expect from a talented journalist and researcher.

 

Please register on our online calendar here in order to have access to this meeting. You will receive an invitation prior to the start of the webinar.

Robert Kolker is the author of Hidden Valley Road, an Oprah's Book Club selection and an instant #1 New York Times nonfiction best-seller. His previous book, Lost Girls, was also a New York Times best-seller and one of the New York Times's 100 Notable Books of 2013. Kolker's journalism has appeared in New York magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, O magazine, and The Marshall Project. He is a National Magazine Award finalist and a recipient of the 2011 Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. In 2020, two works by Kolker were adapted into feature films: Netflix's "Lost Girls," adapted from Kolker's 2013 book, and HBO's "Bad Education," adapted from "The Bad Superintendent," Kolker's 2004 story in New York magazine about a public-school embezzlement scandal.