Books like 'The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain'
Readers who enjoyed The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century military, war & conflict family historical-fiction humor children politics communism coming-of-age
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A Ration Book Wedding by Jean Fullerton
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt's February 1942 and the American's have finally joined Britain and its allies. Meanwhile, twenty-three-year-old Francesca Fabrino, like thousands of other women, is doing her bit for the war effort in a factory in East London... -
![The Orphan Twins by Lesley Eames]()
The Orphan Twins by Lesley Eames
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn unputdownable saga about love and family, guaranteed to warm your heart this winter...London, 1910. Lily is ten years old when she realises her grandmother, a washerwoman in the backstreets of London's Bermondsey, is seriously ill. She's determined to do what can she can to help and keep her grandmother's illness a secret – even from her beloved twin, Artie... -
![Wedding Bells on Victory Street: Gripping and heartbreaking World War 2 saga fiction (The Bryant Sisters) by Pam Howes]()
Wedding Bells on Victory Street: Gripping and heartbreaking World War 2 saga fiction (The Bryant Sisters) by Pam Howes
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom Amazon bestseller Pam Howes comes a heartbreaking World War Two novel about a young woman trying to make the best of history’s darkest hour. Is a happy ever after impossible?Liverpool, 1943. For Bella Rogers, life is looking up... -
![The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe]()
The Spoon Stealer by Lesley Crewe
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBorn into a basket of clean sheets—ruining a perfectly good load of laundry—Emmeline never quite fit in on her family's rural Nova Scotian farm. After suffering multiple losses in the First World War, her family became so heavy with grief, toxicity, and mental illness that Emmeline felt their weight smothering her. And so, she fled across the Atlantic and built her life in England... -
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![A Ration Book Christmas by Jean Fullerton]()
A Ration Book Christmas by Jean Fullerton
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt's 1940 and the German Luftwaffe have started their nightly reign of death and destruction over London's East End. The Brogan family is braced and ready to take on Hitler single-handed, if need be, but with rationing, air-raids and the threat of Nazi invasion hanging over this doughty family, their spirits are taking a bit of a battering.. -
![A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen]()
A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsWith the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family suddenly divided. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can't help herself... -
![When We Danced at the End of the Pier by Sandy Taylor]()
When We Danced at the End of the Pier by Sandy Taylor
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBrighton 1930: Maureen O’Connell is a carefree girl, but her family is on the brink of tragedy, war is looming and life will never be the same again. Jack and Nelson have always been dear friends to Maureen. Despite their different backgrounds, they’ve seen each other through thick and thin... -
![A Ration Book Daughter by Jean Fullerton]()
A Ration Book Daughter by Jean Fullerton
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCathy was a happy, blushing bride when Britain went to war with Germany three years ago. But her youthful dreams were crushed by her violent husband Stanley's involvement with the fascist black-shirts, and even when he's conscripted to fight she knows it's only a brief respite - divorce is not an option. Cathy's only solace is her little son Peter... -
![On a Wing and a Prayer by Helen Carey]()
On a Wing and a Prayer by Helen Carey
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratings‘This dramatic and poignant novel depicts the resilience of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary war.Unputdownable!’ Western Telegraph Life is hard in London in 1941, and yet Helen de Burrel finds herself volunteering to join the SOE. Nobody knows that her cool exterior conceals such courage ... and such fear. It also means that love, when it strikes unexpectedly, is doubly dangerous... -
![The Waiting Hours by Ellie Dean]()
The Waiting Hours by Ellie Dean
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSlapton Sands, Devon1943Carol Porter has had a difficult war. Less than a year ago she lost both her husband and baby, and with them her heart. Only recently has she’s found peace, working as a land girl at Coombe Farm. But Carol’s sanctuary, the whole local area in fact, is about to be disrupted.When Pauline Reilly learns of Carol’s situation she’s worried for her little sister... -
![The Lost Valley by Jennifer Scoullar]()
The Lost Valley by Jennifer Scoullar
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTasmania, 1929: Ten-year-old-twins, Tom and Harry Abbott, are orphaned by a tragedy that shocks Hobart society... -
![The Shipyard Girls by Nancy Revell]()
The Shipyard Girls by Nancy Revell
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratings' A real insight into how it was for these women in a Sunderland major ship building yard ... The foundation book of a series. Which I shall be reading as each one is written. Loved it. ' - 5 star real reader review Sunderland, 1940, and the women go to the shipyards to do their bit for the war effort... -
![Surviving the Fatherland by Annette Oppenlander]()
Surviving the Fatherland by Annette Oppenlander
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSpanning thirteen years from 1940 to 1953 and set against the epic panorama of WWII, SURVIVING THE FATHERLAND is a sweeping saga of family, love, and betrayal that illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the children's war... -
![The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra, Mark Bramhall]()
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra, Mark Bramhall
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena—dazzling, poignant, and lyrical interwoven stories about family, sacrifice, the legacy of war, and the redemptive power of art.This stunning, exquisitely written collection introduces a cast of remarkable characters whose lives intersect in ways both life-affirming and heartbreaking... -
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![The Scarlet Nightingale by Alan Titchmarsh]()
The Scarlet Nightingale by Alan Titchmarsh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAs war rages across Europe, one young woman is torn between love and loyalty.Set in wartime London and occupied France, this is a thrilling story of love, danger and sacrifice from bestselling novelist Alan Titchmarsh.It is the late 1930s when seventeen-year-old Rosamund Hanbury leaves behind the endless summers of her coastal Devonshire home for the fast pace of high society London... -
![Small Country by Gaël Faye]()
Small Country by Gaël Faye
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratings‘A luminous and poignant novel about childhood, war, exile and identity…this is literature at its most powerful’ Le Parisien Magazine Burundi, 1992. For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expat neighbourhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister, Ana, is something close to paradise...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction poc-mc politics war 20th-century 21st-century -
![Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam by Anthony Grey]()
Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam by Anthony Grey
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsVietnam's heady tropical landscape captivates fifteen-year-old Joseph Sherman on a hunting expedition to French colonial Saigon with his family in 1925. He is lured back again and again by his enduring fascination for the country and for Lan, a beautiful Vietnamese mandarin's daughter he could never forget... -
![Orlovi rano lete by Branko Ćopić]()
Orlovi rano lete by Branko Ćopić
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsU ovom romanu se govori o grupi dječaka. Oni su učenici četvrtog razreda u Lipovu - jednom bosanskom selu. Na početku oni žive sretan i bezbrižni dječji život. Njihova učiteljica zove se Lana i oni je jako vole.Kada je učiteljica otišla u varoš, na njezinom mjesto dolazi učitelj kojeg su dječaci prozvali paprika. Učitelj je jako maltretirao i tukao djecu tako da su djeca počela bježati od škole...Categorized as:
children historical-fiction humor war 20th-century action-adventure book children-books -
![Slepá mapa by Alena Mornštajnová]()
Slepá mapa by Alena Mornštajnová
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratings„Lidé přicházejí na svět z různých důvodů – z lásky, náhodou, nebo omylem. Já jsem se narodila kvůli bytu,“ předesílá hlavní hrdinka Anežka na začátku ságy o trojici žen, která se začala psát už před první světovou válkou.Do Anežčina osudu se promítají nejen životní příběhy jejích rodičů a prarodičů, ale i krutý dopad dějinných událostí... -
![Heartbreak in the Valleys by Francesca Capaldi]()
Heartbreak in the Valleys by Francesca Capaldi
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe world was crumbling, but her love stayed strongNovember 1915. For young housemaid, Anwen Rhys, life is hard in the Welsh mining village of Dorcalon, deep in the Rhymney Valley. She cares for her ill mother and beloved younger sister Sara, all while shielding them from her father’s drunken, violent temper... -
![Put Out the Fires by Maureen Lee]()
Put Out the Fires by Maureen Lee
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe second novel in bestseller Maureen Lee's outstanding Liverpool sequence about family life during the Second World WarSeptember 1940 - the cruellest year of war for Britain's civilians as the Luftwaffe mercilessly blitz their cities. In Pearl Street, near Liverpool's docks, families struggle to cope the best they can... -
![We'll Meet Again by Lily Baxter]()
We'll Meet Again by Lily Baxter
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt is April 1939 and unaware that the German war machine is advancing towards the Channel Islands, seventeen-year-old Meg Colivet and her sister are enjoying a holiday in Oxford with their aunt. Here Meg meets charismatic German undergraduate Rayner Weiss and the couple fall passionately in love... -
![Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick]()
Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis National Book Award nominee from two-time finalist Patricia McCormick is the unforgettable story of Arn Chorn-Pond, who defied the odds to survive the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor camps of the Khmer Rouge... -
![At the Going Down of the Sun by Elizabeth Darrell]()
At the Going Down of the Sun by Elizabeth Darrell
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis family epic, set during World War I, follows the fortunes of three brothers and the women who loved and waited for them. One, heir to the exquisite family home of Tarant Hall in Dorset, will be driven to the Front by accusations of cowardice... -
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![The Wife Who Risked Everything by Ellie Midwood]()
The Wife Who Risked Everything by Ellie Midwood
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBerlin, 1943: “Where’s your husband?” the SS man demanded.“There’s no one home,” Margot said before they started tearing the place apart. “I’m alone here.” In his eyes was nothing but ice and death, and it occurred to Margot that only she stood between her husband and the soldier’s machine gun.In Nazi Germany, Margot refuses to buckle under the weight of Hitler’s tyranny... -
![1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War by Morgan Llywelyn]()
1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War by Morgan Llywelyn
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Irish fight for independence is one of the most captivating tales of the twentieth century. Morgan Llywelyn, the acclaimed historical writer of books like Lion of Ireland, Bard and The Horse Goddess , is the writer born to bring this epic battle to life...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war politics fiction historical 20th-century audiobook literary-fiction -
![Children Of The Arbat by Anatoli Rybakov]()
Children Of The Arbat by Anatoli Rybakov
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSet in 1934, Children of the Arbat presents a masterful and chilling psychological portrait of Stalin and details the beginning of his reign of terror and its impact on a generation - represented by a circle of young friends living in Moscow's intellectual and artistic center, the Arbat... -
![The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton]()
The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Exiles conjures her best novel yet, a pre-World War II-era story with the emotional resonance of Orphan Train and All the Light We Cannot See, centering on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe—and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety... -
![The Best Christmas Present in the World by Michael Morpurgo]()
The Best Christmas Present in the World by Michael Morpurgo
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEchoes of Christmas 1914 in the trenches call to the present day when a letter found by chance in an antique desk brings one soldier's experience hauntingly to life. Heart-warming and spine-tingling, this is a perfect story to curl up with on a winter's night... -
![Down Lambeth Way by Mary Jane Staples]()
Down Lambeth Way by Mary Jane Staples
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe beginning of a wonderful saga telling the story of a Cockney family in peace and war from multi-million copy seller Mary Jane Staples. Perfect for fans of Kitty Neale, Maggie Ford and Katie Flynn... -
![Into the Burning Dawn: Heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 historical fiction set in Italy by Natalie Meg Evans]()
Into the Burning Dawn: Heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 historical fiction set in Italy by Natalie Meg Evans
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the terrace courtyard of the palazzo overlooking a sparkling bay, the scent of ripening lemons filled the air. His deep brown eyes gazed into hers with determination and longing. ‘Will you do it? Risk everything and join us?’Twenty-one-year-old Imogen Fitzgerald was raised in an English orphanage and never knew her parents... -
![Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash]()
Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“Spence-Ash has written the novel in eight points of view, but each character is utterly three-dimensional and distinct. This debut novel captivated me from start to finish... -
![The Boat Girls by Margaret Mayhew]()
The Boat Girls by Margaret Mayhew
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt is 1943, and three very different girls are longing to do their bit for the war effort. For Frances, her life of seeming privilege has been a lonely one. Brave and strong, stifled by her traditional upbringing, she falls for a most unsuitable man... -
![Keep Smiling Through by Ellie Dean]()
Keep Smiling Through by Ellie Dean
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJune 1940. Rita Smith swore she would never lose heart . . .Despite losing her mother at a young age and her father away on important war work, seventeen-year-old Rita Smith has plenty of people to turn to in the close-knit community of Cliffhaven. Until Italy sides with Germany and Rita's closest friends and neighbours are interned as enemies of the state... -
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![Looking At The Moon by Kit Pearson]()
Looking At The Moon by Kit Pearson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNorah, an English "war guest"living withthe wealthy Ogilvie family in Toronto, can hardly wait for August. She'll spend it at the Ogilvie's lavish cottage in Muskoka—a whole month of freedom, swimming, adventures with her "cousins"... But this isn't an ordinary summer. It's 1943, and the war is still going on... -
![Evil on the Wind by Diney Costeloe]()
Evil on the Wind by Diney Costeloe
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratings‘Diney Costeloe has evoked the sheer terror felt by Jews in the late 1930s in Germany. My mother was one of them and got out. So many did not. Read this book and begin to understand the pain and the horror.’ Rabbi Julia Neuberger In 1933 Hitler came to power in Germany, and thus began his great design to make Germany ‘Judenfrei’…Jew Free. It is Germany 1937. Fear and betrayal stalk the streets... -
![Elephant Run by Roland Smith]()
Elephant Run by Roland Smith
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1941, bombs drop from the night skies of London, demolishing the apartment Nick Freestone lives in with his mother. Deciding the situation in England is too unstable, Nick's mother sends him to live with his father in Burma, hoping he will be safer living on the family's teak plantation. But as soon as Nick arrives, trouble erupts in this remote Burmese elephant village...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age family historical-fiction poc-mc war 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos, Cassandra Campbell]()
The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos, Cassandra Campbell
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA sweeping family saga and love story that offers a vivid and unique portrayal of life in war-torn 1941 Bucharest and life behind the Iron Curtain during the Soviet Union occupation—perfect for fans of Lilac Girls and Sarah’s Key.On a freezing night in January 1941, a little Jewish girl is found on the steps of an apartment building in Bucharest...Categorized as:
coming-of-age communism family historical-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure -
![My Lvov: Holocaust Memoir of a twelve-year-old Girl by Janina Hescheles, Yaroslav Hrytsak]()
My Lvov: Holocaust Memoir of a twelve-year-old Girl by Janina Hescheles, Yaroslav Hrytsak
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhile still twelve years old, Janina Hescheles wrote this harrowing report from her hiding place in Cracow. The notebook, filled with clear childlike writing, was fortunately preserved. She tells about the German occupation of Lvov, the loss of her parents, about the Ghetto and mass murder in the notorious forced-labor camp Janowska in Lvov... -
![River's Edge by Marie Bostwick]()
River's Edge by Marie Bostwick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter her mother's death, Elise Braun is sent away from her native Germany to live with distant relatives in the United States. Although her father only wants to save her from the impending war and the horrors of the new regime, Elise can't help but feel abandoned... -
![Full Circle by Judith Saxton, J.E. Johnson]()
Full Circle by Judith Saxton, J.E. Johnson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHitler's war is reaching out to affect every member of the Neylor family. Val Neylor, driving an ambulance through the blazing heart of London, is in an impossible position, for the man she loves is a fighter pilot with the Luftwaffe. And Jenny, whose husband Simon is flying Spitfires, finds herself working as a landgirl on a Devon farm... -
![Sea Music by Sara MacDonald]()
Sea Music by Sara MacDonald
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA beautifully written novel with great emotional appeal, of family secrets and wartime heritage, set in Cornwall, London and Warsaw. The house and the cottage overlooking the sea, on the corner of the big estate, was home to three generations of the Tremain family... -
![Mother of Pearl by Maureen Lee]()
Mother of Pearl by Maureen Lee
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA tragedy tears a family apart - a superb novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of THE LEAVING OF LIVERPOOL.Pretty Amy Curran was just eighteen years old when she met Barney Patterson, the love of her life, on Southport Pier in 1939... -
![Passage West by Rishi Reddi]()
Passage West by Rishi Reddi
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA Recommended Book from BookRiot, Bustle, The Millions and Teen Vogue A Los Angeles Times BEST CALIFORNIA BOOK of 2020 * A New England Independent Booksellers' 2020 NEW ENGLAND BOOK AWARD FINALISTA sweeping, vibrant first novel following a family of Indian sharecroppers at the onset of World War I, revealing a little-known part of California history1914: Ram Singh arrives in the Imperial Valley... -
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![Carry Me Home by Sandra Kring]()
Carry Me Home by Sandra Kring
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe love of family. The heartbreak of war. The triumph of coming home. 1940. Rural Wisconsin. Sixteen-year-old Earl “Earwig” Gunderman is not like other boys his age. Fiercely protected by his older brother, Earwig sees his town and the world around him through the prism of his own unique understanding. He sees his mother’s sadness and his father’s growing solitude... -
![All We Left Behind by Danielle R. Graham]()
All We Left Behind by Danielle R. Graham
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFor fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz‘Heart-wrenching. Emotional. A powerful story of wartime love and devotion’ Glynis Peters, author of The Secret OrphanA powerful and incredibly moving historical novel inspired by an untold story of the Second World War.Vancouver 1941As the war rages around the world, Hitler’s fury is yet to be felt on the peaceful shores of Mayne Island... -
![The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis, Seattle, Washington, 1941 (Dear America) by Kirby Larson]()
The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis, Seattle, Washington, 1941 (Dear America) by Kirby Larson
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNewbery Honor author Kirby Larson brings us the first new Dear America diary in years, taking readers through the attack on Pearl Harbor, the start of World War II, and the Japanese incarceration. With this sweeping tale of life on the World War II homefront, Newbery Honor author Kirby Larson brings her incredible talent to the Dear America series... -
![The New Confessions by William Boyd]()
The New Confessions by William Boyd
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this extraordinary novel, William Boyd presents the autobiography of John James Todd, whose uncanny and exhilarating life as one of the most unappreciated geniuses of the twentieth century is equal parts Laurence Stern, Charles Dickens, Robertson Davies, and Saul Bellow, and a hundred percent William Boyd. From his birth in 1899, Todd was doomed... -
![The Outcast Girls by Shirley Dickson]()
The Outcast Girls by Shirley Dickson
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn utterly heartbreaking tale of two young girls, worlds apart, who are thrown together when they have lost everything. Fans of Wives of War, Before We Were Yours and Diney Costeloe will absolutely love this poignant and moving World War Two novel. England, 1937: After a devastating childhood at Blakely Hall Orphanage, fifteen-year-old Sandra is released...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century adult audiobook -
![I'm Staying Here by Marco Balzano]()
I'm Staying Here by Marco Balzano
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCuròn, 1920.In a small village in South Tyrol, Trina longs for a different life. She dedicates herself to becoming a teacher, but the year that she qualifies Mussolini's regime abolishes the use of German as a teaching language.In this new climate of fear and uncertainty Trina works for a clandestine network of schools in the valley, always with the risk of capture.Curòn, 1939...
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