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

by Eugene Yelchin

Eugene Yelchin (Illustrator)

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Book cover for The Genius Under the Table

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An Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Honor Winner

With a masterful mix of comic timing and disarming poignancy, Newbery Honoree Eugene Yelchin offers a memoir of growing up in Cold War Russia.


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.
  • ISBN10 153621552X
  • ISBN13 9781536215526
  • Publish Date 12 October 2021 (first published 5 October 2021)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Candlewick Press,U.S.