Culpability Audiobook By Bruce Holsinger cover art

Culpability

A Novel

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Culpability

By: Bruce Holsinger
Narrated by: Stacy Carolan, January LaVoy
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• 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
Domestic Thrillers Family Life Genre Fiction Psychological Suspense Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Exciting Morality
Gripping Storyline • Compelling Characters • Unexpected Twists • Engaging Plot • Thought-provoking Themes
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I liked that both mom and dad were willing to sacrifice something for their kids and their family!

Starts out a bit weak and every turn creates more depth if u stay with it!

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Such an important topic begin to understand in this time when AI is so prevent in our daily lives.

Excellent read

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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.

Relevant Issues

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This book was a rollercoaster of emotion, a great story and also a conflicting pull on morality and logic.

Mind blowing and thought provoking

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Enjoy and is now saved in my favorites and well, we recommend it to my daughter

The knowledge meant of AI, which are you very little about open my eyes widely

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Very well written and I especially loved the excerpts from the fictional book that the main character’s wife wrote. Reminded me a lot of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park with the fictional excerpts from Ian Malcolm about chaos theory

So many twists

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I wasn’t completely sold on the way the book ended The book should’ve ended more with the question of who is or what is culpable.

Most culpable… Machine or man

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A little slow in the beginning, but picked up mid book. Character development was good. Story line made you think

The concept of responsibility

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

Fantastic!

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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.

Extremely thought-provoking

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