I just finished reading My Apprenticeship (translated by Margaret Wettlin and Hellen Altschuler) and originally published in 1916. This is the second part of an autobiographical trilogy. The title is sometimes translated into English as Amid Attendants and In the World

This book was a wonderful reading experience. Gorky puts you inside the head of a perceptive adolescent boy as he wends his way through life, trying again and again to understand the world and the individual people in it. The book is deeply humane, and young Gorky’s experiences are buoyed by a simple kindness that brings warmth to a very difficult world.

“Don’t take any of that to heart, fellows. You’re young yet and have a long life ahead of you. Store up your own ideas. One thought of your own is worth two that are borrowed.”