Culpability

A Novel

De: Bruce Holsinger

Narrado por: Stacy Carolan, January LaVoy

Oprah’s Book Club Pick * New Yorker Best Books of 2025 * 2026 Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlist * Kirkus Best Books of 2025 * Real Simple Best Books of 2025 * Washington Post Noteable Fiction 2025 * NPR's 2025 "Books We Love" * Minnesota Star Tribune 20 Best of 2025 *

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

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.

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

Your mind may or may not be left reeling…

Spoiler free! I was sent this book as a part of a promotion by the publisher and I have to honestly say, it was genuinely engrossing and I can think of a handful of people in my life I would like to buy a copy for. A modern who-done-it, the plot’s twists and turns were all very thought provoking and very relavant! I even found myself questioning my own beliefs on the use of AI. The way the author humanizes every character through their own use/misuse/dependency on technology felt incredibly relatable. Basically this book has a month’s worth of inspiration for dinner table discussions and debates in every chapter. In the end, I cant tell if I love AI or hate it or maybe it’s fine in some circumstances or maybe, no, it’s absolutely terrifying and the end of civilization. At the end, I believe is it should not be left to its own devices, per se… but then again, maybe humans are the baddies because for every moment of moral fortitude there seems to be two moments of potential disaster... like I said, it leaves you debating. Also, great narrator!

Couldn't put it down!

Loved it! The story, the characters... excellent! Thought provoking. one of the best books I've listened to in a long time.

Relevant Issues

If you expect a literary feat, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you accept that the characters are not going to come as alive as they could, that the text can actually come across as AI, and that the AI companion bot sometimes sounds more animated than the characters, then you’ll be able to enjoy the story for what it represents. It is the unfolding of what could be our realities in the near future and some of the hard decisions we’re all going to have to make. The story keeps moving forward, there’s a bit of mystery, but it’s not going to leave you wondering about the family. The beginning of the story, even though it features the car accident, felt so flat that I had to double check that this was an Oprah pick. I listened to much of it while pressure washing my long driveway so continued bc I was curious about the story trajectory. A good summer read when you have no expectations of literary merit but want a decent story about relevant contemporary issues.

Best book I have read in a while!

Insightful, well written, thought provoking. Timely. An intriguing examination of moral responsibility, especially in the context of AI. A thrilling examination the of ethical dilemmas and moral complexities of AI.

Timely Topics

Loved all of the characters and the descriptive language. Made it very easy to visualize.