Wanderers

The MedиаКнига studio presents an audiobook of the great Russian writer, holder of the highest award of the USSR—the Order of Lenin—Vyacheslav Yakovlevich Shishkov, featuring his largest novella “Strannіki” (“Wanderers”).

On the shore of a river, under an old barge, about a hundred people crowded together: the poor, thieves, drifters, and vagrants. Among the little ragged boys, Amelka Shhimnik was the leader—raised without a father and who fled from his mother. Here, too, the orphan Filka met Styopka Stukni-v-lob, Pashka the Camel, May Flower, Dizinṭyor, and the funny little tatterdemalion Engineer Voshkin.

“Shishkov is a good realist storyteller, richly reflecting in his prose a deep knowledge of various regions of Siberia and an interest in the language of the people.” — V. Kazak

“And in terms of the qualities of the soul, he was rare. A Man of Good, a Man of Faith—he was national in all its expressions. And that’s why he captivated such distant and different people—the true master Zamyatin, Tolstoy’s elemental talent, the esthete Radlov.” — K. A. Fedin

“‘A weak will will lead you into captivity’—folk wisdom.

In the harsh times of the liberation struggle, an inevitable disaster struck the Russian land: famine—and along with it, typhus.

Filka’s parents died of typhus one after another within the same week. Soon his grandfather and aunt were taken too. Fourteen-year-old Filka went out of his mind. Forgetting the fear of the cemetery, he sat for two days on his father’s and mother’s grave, crying with his face buried in wet rain-softened clay:

‘Well, how will I live now?! And where do I go?!’

There was no one to comfort Filka: grief is piled in every man’s arms. Only Sharik, curly, all in feathers, genuinely pitied Filka—he was there with him in the cemetery, wagging his tail as if trying to pretend he was joyful and satisfied with life, or sighing and lowering his head, and with a bark or two beginning to howl. Sharik’s life was also not sweet.

But it happened that a blind passerby met Filka—an old man, Nefed. He gave the boy a large piece of bread. Hungry Filka ate the piece greedily, then said:

‘Grandpa, give me some more, at least another crust: Sharik is right here with me, a dog.’

‘Here, here,’ the old man said willingly. ‘“Blessed is he who shows mercy to the animals…”—it’s written in the Psalms.’” V. Ya. Shishkov, “Strannіki”

The book is read by a popular theater and film actor—Mikhail Roslyakov.