About this item
For readers of Hidden Valley Road and Patient H.M., a harrowing exploration of violence against children and its psychological and political consequences, from the author of The Unfit Heiress. In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame to their fledgling institution. The case of the pseudonymous Genain quadruplets, they soon found, was hardly so straightforward. Contrary to fawning media portrayals of a picture-perfect Christian family, the sisters had endured the stuff of nightmares.
About the Author
Audrey Clare Farley is a historian of twentieth-century American fiction and culture with special interests in high society, science, and religion. Prior to writing full-time, she taught literature at University of Maryland, College Park, where she earned a PhD in English. She lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania.
