Culpability

A Novel

De: Bruce Holsinger

Narrado por: Stacy Carolan, January LaVoy

• Oprah’s Book Club Pick •

“I was riveted until the very last shocking sentence!”—Oprah Winfrey

“The most of-the-moment novel I’ve read all year, and it’s the book of the summer.”—Real Simple

Set at a summer rental on the Chesapeake Bay, a riveting family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence.

When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret that implicates them in the accident.

During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident—suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.

Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.

To hear Oprah Winfrey interview author Bruce Holsinger, please visit the July 8 episode of the ‘Oprah’s Book Club: Presented by Starbucks’ podcast on the platform of your choice.

©2025 Bruce Holsinger (P)2025 Spiegel & Grau by Spotify Audiobooks

A captivating read…

I simply did not want to put this book down. Each chapter left me yearning for the next plot twist. Very well-written. The visual imagery and descriptive language really helped to paint a mental picture of the characters and the scenes as if watching a movie in your head. I would love to see this turned into a film.

Great read!

I enjoyed this book. Not only was in entertaining, it gave me lots of food for thought!! Great book full of suspense!

Fantastic!

Wow, this was just perfect. Great writing, great characters, gripping story, loved, loved, loved this!

Terrible

I kept waiting for the plot to make sense or have a deeper meaning. The woman who was supposed to be the conscience of AI made a backroom deal to save her son from prosecution. The sister with an AI friend was never developed. The narrator was extremely disappointing in how he handled his wife's deception. Just overall terrible!

Tension

I tried. I listened to 37 chapters and the feeling I come away with is tension. It is not worth wasting my time.l