When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, killing an elderly couple, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, 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 harbours a secret, implicating them all in the tragic accident.
During a weeklong recovery vacation in the final days of summer, 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.
\”For all its eerie timeliness, Culpability should age better than yesterday’s Instagram post. Holsinger, a medievalist at the University of Virginia, has a sharp eye for the eternal values and foibles that animate human affairs. . . . The plot of his latest book [is] a searching examination of family dynamics and the burdens that no machine will ever lift for us. . . . For all the story’s contemporary details, Culpability is a 19th-century novel in the spirit of William Dean Howells–explicitly concerned with morality. That’s not to say it’s didactic, only that it presents deep ethical questions about fault and responsibility. It’s also an irresistibly anxious book, the kind that scratches all your worries about the fragility of upper-middle-class life, the financial and legal perils that lurk behind every open-ended risk we take.\”–Ron Charles, The Washington Post
\”In this tightly paced novel, domestic intrigue is transposed into the fraught world of AI. . . . This Zeitgeisty discussion is balanced with plenty of drama: as it turns out, the family vacation house is next to a compound owned by a shady tech billionaire–a discovery that unleashes a torrent of deception.\” –New Yorker
\”This is a wonderful book. . . . [It] has everything for someone like me. . . . It’s an incredibly nuanced book that brings up a lot of issues and, most importantly, allows you to talk about them in a way that’s discernable. I’m recommending it to lots of people.\” –Kara Swisher, On with Kara Swisher
\”A family drama with a shocking twist. Bruce Holsinger tackles timely topics and the ties that bind in Culpability . . . a who’s who of hot-button issues, including AI, corporate greed, tech addiction and even a subtle subplot about the encroachment of youth sports on family life. But the topic most likely to spark appreciative group texts among book club members of a certain age has to do with a less trendy subject: teenagers. Specifically, the relationship between a father and his 17-year-old son, which Holsinger depicts in all its maddening complexity. Culpability always returns to Noah and Charlie. . . . We meet them at a tender time–a ‘hinge of life, ‘ as Noah calls it–and Holsinger does it justice.\” –Elisabeth Egan, New York Times
\”Holsinger seems to have created his own subgenre of psychosocial thriller, spinning super-smart, propulsive page-turners out of zeitgeisty worries . . . If you are not already hooked on Holsinger, it’s time to join the club.\”–Kirkus (starred review)
\”In this twisty family drama . . . Holsinger grapples evocatively with the trade-offs of automated life. This timely tale leaves readers with much to chew on.\”–Publishers Weekly
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368
Imprint: Europa Edns (US)
Publication date: 11/09/2025
