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Culpability

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Culpability

By: Bruce Holsinger
Narrated by: January LaVoy, Stacy Carolan
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About this listen

"An irresistibly anxious book."―The Washington Post

"A family drama with a shocking twist." ―The New York Times

"I was riveted until the very last shocking sentence!"―Oprah Winfrey

When the Cassidy-Shaws' driverless minivan fatally collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver's seat. His father, Noah, is beside him, and in the back with his younger siblings is his mother, Lorelei—a renowned AI researcher—who is lost in her work.

During a weeklong retreat on the Chesapeake Bay, the Cassidy-Shaws wrestle with the moral fallout of the crash as a routine police enquiry starts to unravel. As Lorelei's increasingly odd behaviour stirs her husband's suspicions that there may be a darker truth behind the incident, the arrival of tech billionaire Daniel Monet (who has a mysterious history with Lorelei) cements them. When Charlie falls for Monet's teenage daughter, tensions among the Cassidy-Shaws reach breaking point.

A psychosocial thriller and a propulsive family drama, Culpability explores a world newly shaped by non-human forces such as chatbots and autonomous cars, and forces us to examine our own relationship to artificial intelligence, and the nuanced ways in which we are all, in fact, culpable.

©2025 Bruce Holsinger (P)2025 Europa Editions (UK) Ltd. Family Life Genre Fiction Psychological
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I had anticipated this book for a while and glad I got to read it. I think my expectations were more around AI and it's ethics. What I got from the book however was more around family dynamics which was quite intriguing, relatable! fragmented yet whole. I did expect a lot more exploration of the advancement of AI, it's unrealised extent and potential impact on life as we know it. Otherwise, it was enjoyable to read.

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A well written family drama that attempts to grapple with the issue of liability when a crisis occurs and AI may be at fault. Given the state of the world and where we seem to be going, this is an easy recommend

Culpability

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