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

AI ethics

The questions the novel posts about the responsibilities of how we use AI. We need to understand that AI can help us better our lives, but not replace making decisions that are crucial to maintaining our humanity.

Extremely thought-provoking

Oprah doesn't recommend books for her health! Definitely add this book to your reading list especially if you're not well versed in AI. Each chapter will challenge your thinking without overwhelming you with doctoral level technical terms.

This book was so good!

I listened to it with my boyfriend this weekend on a long roadtrip, and he was initially not thrilled that we’d be listening to a book the whole drive, but we were both hooked from the first chapter! It was fresh, captivating, sharp-whited, made us think, pause it and talk about it. It was all the things! Great narration too.

Wonderful plot

I liked all the characters. Very exciting and great story. Unexpected twists. Very relatable and with the times we are in today.

Great story subject….wrapped around a family drama.

Loved the technology and the relationships between the family members. Also loved the “what would I do” if put in the same situation.