Culpability

(Paperback)

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Description

A suspenseful family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence

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.

Reviews

A thought-provoking and riveting meditation on family, parental love, morality and artificial intelligenceand where they all intersect. Wise, propulsive, and deeply powerful. * Laura Dave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me *
Reminiscent of the work of Richard Powers and Don DeLillo, Culpability is a compelling narrative about the perils of the digital age. * Mary Morris, author of The Red House *

Author Bio

Bruce Holsinger is the author of four novels, includingThe DisplacementsandThe Gifted School, and many works of non-fiction. His books have been recognized with the Colorado Book Award, the John Hurt Fisher Prize, the Philip Brett Award, the John Nicholas Brown Prize, the Modern Language Associations Prize for a First Book, and others. His essays and reviews have appeared inThe New York Times and Vanity Fair, and he is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He teaches in the department of English at the University of Virginia, where he specialises in medieval literature and modern critical thought.