Summer Series: Culpability

Our May novel is Culpability by Bruce Holsinger.

Set at a summer rental on the Chesapeake Bay, a riveting family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence.

When the family's 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 harbours 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.

The novel explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones and other non human forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging and provocative.

We chose to meet at Aux Delices, a local crepery.