Eugene Yelchin’s new graphic memoir, I Wish I Didn’t Have To Tell You This (Candlewick, September 16), boldly recounts the author’s harrowing experience leaving the Soviet Union in the early 1980s. A continuation of his acclaimed middle-grade autobiographical novel, The Genius Under the Table (2021), the new book is written for a young adult audience and features Yelchin’s expressive grayscale illustrations. Yelchin answered our questions by email.

Tell readers, briefly, about your book.

I Wish I Didn’t Have To Tell You This details the last three years of my life in the Soviet Union: 1980-1983. During that time, I fell in love with an American student, Libby. From Libby I learned that fundamental things had been stolen from me by the state—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The lives of Soviet citizens were dedicated to the Communist Party; our liberty had been taken away for so long that we didn’t know what it might feel like to be free, and happiness was such a foreign and frivolous concept that it would be suspicious to pursue it. Libby gave me the courage to resist the oppressive regime, which eventually led to my liberation.

What inspired you during the writing of the book?

Making this bookwas extremely labor-intensive—432 pages of drawings! The process took four years, during which I read many books, but there was one I went back to again and again—Sven Birkerts’ The Art of Time in Memoir. I highly recommend this book to anyone considering writing a memoir. Birkerts is an insightful, sensitive, intelligent, and clear writer.

What was most challenging about writing this book? And most rewarding?

The most difficult thing is expressed in the title. I wish I didn’t have to tell you about the troubles I had with the Communist Cultural Committee. I wish I didn’t have to tell you about dodging the draft during the war in Afghanistan. I wish I didn’t have to tell you about the constant KGB surveillance, the nightmare of the Siberian psychiatric hospital, the loss of my best friend, assassinated by the KGB. I wish I didn’t have to, but in a changing America, the first-person account of what it means to live in a dictatorship may be of some use to young readers.

The most rewarding? Reliving the time when I was in love with someone who gave me courage and hope, who opened my eyes to injustice, and who, in the end, saved my life.

Will you be touring or doing events for the book this fall? Any you are especially looking forward to?

I am very fortunate to be working with a team of passionate and dedicated people at Candlewick Press. They’re helping the book be seen by as many readers as possible. The one event I look forward to most is the launch of the book at the Wende Museum of the Cold War in Los Angeles. This will be my third launch at the museum. Each event is different and entertaining. I build sets, make movies, invite musicians, work with actors reenacting scenes from my books. It’s fun. If you find yourself in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 21, please come by.

Emily Gaines is an editorial intern.