Yevgenia Nayberg

Skip to main content Join a community of readers who are committed to Jewish stories Sign up for JBC’s Nu Reads, a curated selection of Jewish books delivered straight to your door! Review By – July 6, 2026 In Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters, Yevgenia Nayberg uses reflection, humor, and artistic innovation in creating a portrait of herself as a young woman.

Employing cozy textures and pared-down visual geometries, Pizzoli (Lucky Duck) creates a beguilingly simple wind-down story that’s equal parts lullaby and primer. As the sun—depicted as two concentric circles, one orange and one yellow—makes its exit, a pale-skinned, ponytailed child surveys five creatures, first in a flower-filled backyard, then in the snug indoors. To the child’s question, “Where do you go when the sun goes down?” each responds with soothing verse.

In this powerful graphic novel memoir, Nayberg (A Party for Florine) recounts her struggles developing her artistic sense of self while navigating the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Jewish 11-year-old Nayberg prefers pants to dresses, dislikes her masculine-sounding name, and despairs that people assume she’s a boy when her hair is short.