Author Talk: Bruce Holsinger, "Culpability"

Darien Library and Barrett Bookstore are excited to welcome author Bruce Holsinger, who will discuss his new book, Culpability. Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative. 

All the rage with book groups, this novel is a riveting family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence.  Come join us for what will surely be an engaging discussion!

About the Book

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.

About the Author

Bruce Holsinger is the author of Culpability, the 116th selection of Oprah's Book Club and hailed by Oprah Winfrey as "a must-read for all generations." His four previous novels include The Gifted School, which won the Colorado Book Award, and The Displacements, the inaugural title in the United Nations Read for Action Book Club. 

He's also written many works of non-fiction, most recently On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and many other publications, and he has been profiled on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Here & Now, and Marketplace. He teaches English at the University of Virginia and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.