How I Was Independent

Yuri Sotnik wrote his first story about a kitten living in their communal apartment in the fourth grade. The story won first place in a school contest and was even read from the stage. When he learned about such an astonishing success, the young author asked his mom, “Can you live in a way where you don’t have to work anywhere—only write stories?” His mother explained what it means to be a writer, and this profession, as Sotnik would later remember, appealed to him greatly. “The thing is, the little story was written for me without even the slightest effort, and I loved to loaf around—so I quickly realized that the writer’s job was exactly for me.”

After that first phenomenal success, quite a lot of time passed, and then he wrote the famous “Vovka Grushin’s ‘Archimedes’”—the first published story by the author. And following that came other, no less interesting and exciting tales: “How I Became Independent,” “A Man Without Nervousness,” and others.

In this audiobook, you’ll find audio versions of selected pieces:

— The Swimming Teacher

— How I Became Independent

— All Hope on You

— How They Saved Me

— The Viper

— Dudkin Tells Jokes

— Roosters

— Trainers

— A Man Without Nervousness