BRUCE HOLSINGER

"I was riveted until the very last shocking sentence."

-Oprah Winfrey

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“Holsinger has a sharp eye for the eternal values and foibles that animate human affairs. . . . The plot of his latest book [is] a searching examination of family dynamics and the burdens that no machine will ever lift for us. . . . For all the story’s contemporary details, Culpability is a 19th-century novel in the spirit of William Dean Howells—explicitly concerned with morality. That’s not to say it’s didactic, only that it presents deep ethical questions about fault and responsibility. It’s also an irresistibly anxious book, the kind that scratches all your worries about the fragility of upper-middle-class life, the financial and legal perils that lurk behind every open-ended risk we take.”

—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

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“A family drama with a shocking twist. Bruce Holsinger tackles timely topics and the ties that bind in Culpability . . . a who’s who of hot-button issues, including AI, corporate greed, tech addiction and even a subtle subplot about the encroachment of youth sports on family life. But the topic most likely to spark appreciative group texts among book club members of a certain age has to do with a less trendy subject: teenagers. Specifically, the relationship between a father and his 17-year-old son, which Holsinger depicts in all its maddening complexiity. . . .Culpability always returns to Noah and Charlie. . . . We meet them at a tender time—a ‘hinge of life,’ as Noah calls it—and Holsinger does it justice.”

—Elisabeth Egan, The New York Times

 

“Holsinger seems to have created his own subgenre of psychosocial thriller, spinning super-smart, propulsive page-turners out of zeitgeisty worries . . . If you are not already hooked on Holsinger, it’s time to join the club.”

—Kirkus (starred review)

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“Riveting . . . a propulsive, difficult-to-put down novel. . . . The best kind of suspense usually comes from realistic situations where we are, as the title hints, somehow culpable for the bad things that happen to us, and that’s true here. . . . Holsinger, whose previous novels include The Gifted School, is adept at capturing the tiny errors humans in the same family can make, thinking they’re protecting each other. . . . You needn’t have been in a trauma such as a fatal car wreck to recognize these people, who are blessed with the illogical logic we all sometimes fall victim to.”

—Minnesota Star Tribune 

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“Secrets swirl and the stakes rise in this sharply modern family drama.”

—People (“Best New Book”)

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“Culpability is the thinking man's page-turner, absolutely of the moment.”

—Newsday 

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“This is a wonderful book. . . . [It] has everything for someone like me. . . . It’s an incredibly nuanced book that brings up a lot of issues and, most importantly, allows you to talk about them in a way that’s discernable. I'm recommending it to lots of people.”

—Kara Swisher, On with Kara Swisher

 

"A riveting meditation on family, parental love, morality and artificial intelligence—and where they all intersect. A wise, propulsive, and deeply powerful novel."​

 —Laura Dave, #1 New York Times  bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me

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"This is the book you’ll be desperate to talk about while you’re beside the pool, and dying to press into somebody else’s hands once you’ve closed the final, chlorine-splattered page. It’s the most of-the-moment novel I’ve read all year, and it’s the book of the summer."

—Real Simple

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