With You

By: Greg Lawrence

Narrated by: Louise Porter

Can an AI (Artificial Intelligence) transcend its rational programming to make moral decisions? Can we code a conscience into existence?

In With You, author Greg Lawrence explores this timely and transfixing question in a gripping novel that lays bare the ties that bind husband and wife, parent and child, and human and machine.

The last survivor of a Polish town that once numbered 25,000, WWII resistance fighter Michael Rain (born Moshe Rainewicz) makes his way to the place of his dreams—America—determined to start a new life after the war. His skills as a mechanic land him a job with Ford Motor Company, and he marries a resilient woman who has overcome her own troubled past.

Michael’s daughter, Samantha, has every opportunity her working-class father can provide, as well as his razor-sharp mind, steel nerve, and boundless optimism. But she needs it all to meet the demands of single motherhood resulting from a failed marriage. Struggling to succeed, Samantha starts out selling low-end real estate, eventually developing a high-tech software business she sells for millions, transforming herself from a woman wearing secondhand clothes into a wealthy entrepreneur. Yet, as she discovers, both poverty and wealth can be curses.

Samantha and her only child, Grace, develop a special connection, meeting each of life’s perils united as one. But as the tapestry of Grace’s comfortable suburban life unravels, and Samantha confronts her own crisis, their unassailable bond is tested, and Samantha must rethink how she can best protect her daughter.

Always focused on the future, Samantha invests not only a huge chunk of her fortune but also her very consciousness in a promising but risky artificial intelligence venture. Neither Grace nor her mother can anticipate the stunning confluence of life-altering and life-preserving events that flows from this fateful decision.

Set on two continents and spanning 100 years, With You is a fast-paced and inspiring story of three generations inextricably linked in life—and through a twist of fate—after death, revealing the power of family and its strength to overcome all challenges, including mortality. The Rain clan faces life and death, bound by their enduring love for each other, proving strong women come from strong mothers.

©2021 Greg Merdinger (P)2022 Greg Merdinger