Robert Kolker – författare

Familjen Galvin tycktes vara en mönsterfamilj på alla sätt. Pappa Don gjorde karriär inom militären, hemma var mamma Mimi en strävsam matriark som uppfostrade de tolv barnen, varav tio pojkar, alla födda under babyboom-åren mellan 1945 och 1965. De bodde på Hidden Valley Road, i Colorado Springs, som en inkarnation av den amerikanska drömmen under rekordåren.

Men under det turbulenta 60-talet rämnade den lyckliga fasaden och tragedierna kom slag i slag. Sex av familjens söner skulle komma att diagnosticeras med schizofreni, och sjukdomen förde familjen till ruinens brant. Robert Kolkers berättelse är en hisnande skildring av en familjs kamp mot en sjukdom som alltid gäckat vetenskapen, men visar också hur familjen Galvins unika sjukdomshistoria gav forskningen avgörande kunskaper som fört oss närmare svaret på schizofrenins gåta.

"Barnen på Hidden Valley Road är en fängslande sann berättelse om en amerikansk familj, men fungerar samtidigt som en medicinsk detektivgåta som kastar ljus över en frågeställning så många av oss tvingas möta: mentalsjukdom.”, skrev Oprah Winfrey.

New York Times Bestseller • Now a Netflix Film

The bestselling account of the lives of five young women whose fates converged in the perplexing case of the Long Island Serial Killer.

“Rich, tragic...monumental...true-crime reporting at its best.”—Washington Post

One late spring evening in 2010, Shannan Gilbert—after running through the oceanfront community of Oak Beach screaming for her life—went missing. No one who had heard of her disappearance thought much about what had happened to the twenty-four-year-old: she was a Craigslist escort who had been fleeing a scene—of what, no one could be sure. The Suffolk County police, too, seemed to have paid little attention—until seven months later, when an unexpected discovery in a bramble alongside a nearby highway turned up four bodies, all evenly spaced, all wrapped in burlap. But none of them Shannan’s. 

There was Maureen Brainard-Barnes, last seen at Penn Station in Manhattan three years earlier, and Melissa Barthelemy, last seen in the Bronx in 2009. There was Megan Waterman, last seen leaving a hotel in Hauppauge, Long Island, just a month after Shannon’s disappearance in 2010, and Amber Lynn Costello, last seen leaving a house in West Babylon a few months later that same year. Like Shannan, all four women were petite, in their twenties, and had come from out of town to work as escorts, and they all had advertised on Craigslist and its competitor, Backpage. 

Long considered “one of the best true-crime books of all time” (Time), Lost Girls is a portrait of unsolved murders in an idyllic part of America, of the underside of the Internet, and of the secrets we keep without admitting to ourselves that we keep them.

Politics Goes to the Movies introduces the topic of political representation and ideology by analyzing some of the most important politically themed films across the history of cinema in a refreshing and concise volume. Offering a survey of political cinema from 1915 to present day, topics include: propaganda, Communism, Fascism, revolutionary cinema, and contemporary documentary. Using individual case studies that begin with The Birth of a Nation and end with O.J.: Made in America, the book introduces how various strands of international politics have been woven through the fabric of cinema by contextualizing each film in its particular historical moment. In addition, Robert Kolker offers formal analyses that explore not only overtly political themes but also how the structural properties of a film can themselves be political—how political films are made, politically.

Including films produced across Europe, North Africa, the US, and Latin America, this accessible and engaging book is an ideal introductory text for students of political cinema.

Politics Goes to the Movies introduces the topic of political representation and ideology by analyzing some of the most important politically themed films across the history of cinema in a refreshing and concise volume. Offering a survey of political cinema from 1915 to present day, topics include: propaganda, Communism, Fascism, revolutionary cinema, and contemporary documentary. Using individual case studies that begin with The Birth of a Nation and end with O.J.: Made in America, the book introduces how various strands of international politics have been woven through the fabric of cinema by contextualizing each film in its particular historical moment. In addition, Robert Kolker offers formal analyses that explore not only overtly political themes but also how the structural properties of a film can themselves be political—how political films are made, politically.

Including films produced across Europe, North Africa, the US, and Latin America, this accessible and engaging book is an ideal introductory text for students of political cinema.

12 children.6 of them diagnosed with schizophrenia.Science''s greatest hope in understanding the disease.___________*ONE OF BARACK OBAMA''S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2020**TIME 100 Must-Read Books Of 2020 Pick**New York Times bestseller**Selected as Oprah''s Book Club Pick*''Startlingly intimate'' - The Sunday Times''Grippingly told and brilliantly reported'' - Mail on Sunday''Unforgettable'' - The TimesFor fans of Educated, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Three Identical StrangersDon 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 the other, 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 Institutes 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 amidst 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.''An extraordinary case study and tour de force of reporting'' - Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind''This book tore my heart out. It is a revelation-about the history of mental health treatment, about trauma, foremost about family-and a more-than-worthy follow-up to Robert Kolker''s brilliant Lost Girls'' -Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me and Give Me Your Hand''Hidden Valley Road contains everything: scientific intrigue, meticulous reporting, startling revelations, and, most of all, a profound sense of humanity. It is that rare book that can be read again and again''-David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon