The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain

"Yelchin delivers a darkly humorous slice-of-life account of growing up in the Soviet Union. . . . Humorous, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Drama, family secrets, and a KGB spy in his own kitchen! How will Yevgeny ever fulfill his parents' dream that he become a national hero when he doesn't even have his own room? He's not a star athlete or a legendary ballet dancer. In the tiny apartment he shares with his Baryshnikov-obsessed mother, poetry-loving father, continually outraged grandmother, and safely talented brother, all Yevgeny has is his little pencil, the underside of a massive table, and the doodles that could change everything. With equal amounts charm and solemnity, award-winning author and artist Eugene Yelchin recounts in hilarious detail his childhood in Cold War Russia as a young boy desperate to understand his place in his family.

Author: Eugene Yelchin
Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
Published: 05/21/2024
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.20h x 6.00w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9781536236248
ISBN10: 1536236241
BISAC Categories:
- Juvenile Nonfiction | Art | Drawing
- Juvenile Nonfiction | Places | Europe
- Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Art

About the Author
Eugene Yelchin is the co-author and illustrator of the 2018 National Book Award Finalist The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, co-written with M. T. Anderson. A Tomie dePaola Illustrator Award Winner, he also received a Newbery Honor for his novel Breaking Stalin's Nose. Born in Leningrad, Russian-American Eugene Yelchin now lives in Topanga, California, with his family.