 In 1955 he left the newspaper and started working upon his first novel "Snows are Melting" (Tayut Snega) which was published in 1958, as was his first book of short stories "Warm Rain" (Tyoply Dozhd), dedicated mostly to the experience of Russian soldiers and civilians during the German-Soviet War.Also in the late 1950s Astafyev joined the regional Perm radio.Working there provided relatively good wages but involved too much blatant propaganda.