Adrian Wistreich

"Well, circumstances change. You turn a corner and the world around you changes. You wake up with your face in the gutter and everything's gone." Joe feels like a small boy, standing at the side of a road in the desert, lost. He's achieved great things and lost them all. He's loved and lost his child and failed to hold onto the best in his life, and he believes it's all his fault.His upbringing might be described as deprived and abusive now, but it was 'normal' then. When sent to boarding school at 8, Joe learned how to maintain a stiff upper lip and suppress his emotions. His mother's adage "those who ask don't get, those who don't ask don't want" hung over his troubled childhood.Joe's abusive and dysfunctional upbringing turned him into a self-destructive and emotionally disconnected adult. Loathing himself and striving to achieve something that deserved his parents' affirmation, Joe wanted to be in control of his destiny and find happiness, but everything he touched seemed to fall apart. Joe falls from a great height as a successful tycoon to become a homeless alcoholic, arrested while standing on the parapet of Lambeth Bridge. Can he learn to forgive himself and find redemption? Can he rebuild some sort of self-respect and peace by taking one day at a time or will he continue down his dark path to despair?Joe is a powerful, heart-rending but at times warm and funny story that delves into one man's desperate struggle to find self-compassion and to shake off the belief that he is responsible for what was done to him as a child. His own children are at stake.

This novel is based on a true story about the fate of a family of wealthy Jews trapped in Poland during World War 2. Miriam, a privileged and educated woman from a middle-class family, entered into an arranged marriage in 1919. Their family life was undermined by Otto's long-term affair with his business partner's wife, which resulted in the birth of two illegitimate children. Miriam, who knew of the affair, but not the paternity, chose to remain in the marriage, in order to enjoy the luxuries of their lifestyle, and for their three children to whom she was devoted.When war broke out, Miriam and Otto were effectively living apart, and against her better judgement, Miriam agreed to Otto's demand that she return from a trip to France to their home in Krakow. Within a week, Poland was invaded by Hitler's forces, and soon after by Stalin's.Miriam and her young daughter, Anna, left Krakow 24 hours before the Nazis arrived, but was caught between the German and Soviet forces as they divided Poland. Settling in Russian occupied Lwow, they learned to live a hand to mouth existence. In 1941, when Hitler declared war on Russia and as his forces were about to overwhelm Lwow, Miriam was saved by an SS Officer, an old friend from Vienna.

In January 2015 the world's leading artificial intelligence (AI) experts came together in Puerto Rico. During the conference, a survey was conducted where delegates were asked to estimate the year in which Strong AGI (the point at which artificial general intelligence, through self-learning algorithms, outstrips human intelligence) is reached. It averaged at 2047. This is the year in which It's Good for You is set.Life is dominated and controlled by compulsory genome mapping. Everyone is genome chipped at birth, and receives a probability score (PQ) which denotes their likelihood to lead healthy lives and produce healthy offspring. The PQ is owned and run by insurance companies who administer the country's healthcare and security services, and use the PQ to set insurance premiums. The PQ algorithm also helps match couples, establishing their level of risk to society and alerting the authorities to breaches of behaviour, accidents and unhealthy practices. In 2047, AI already underpins many aspects of society, and as a result, almost nine in ten people are unemployed and survive on Universal Income, while the small number still working are the privileged elite. Ellen, one of the Insights Analysts in Strasbourg Insurance, is the only working member in her family, and helps to fund her sister's antidepressants and mother's addiction to virtual reality games. She's a romantic and hopes to meet Mr Right through the G-Match dating service she works on.Dr Stanislav Janekowski, Stan, the architect of the PQ Algorithm, is prepared to do anything to remain at the top. But he has his weaknesses and many enemies, and the Gimme Hacking Co-operative lead by Nick Artremis and John Vaunt each with personal grudges against Stan work to take him and his edifice down. Their plans seem to work, but Stan has been developing Strong AI, at the forefront of the race to be first, and already, his software is taking control.