#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than one million copies sold! A “brilliant” (Lupita Nyong’o, Time), “poignant” (Entertainment Weekly), “soul-nourishing” (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid “Noah’s childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes his comedy, while illuminating a dark and brutal period in South Africa’s … illuminating a dark and brutal period in South Africa’s history that must never be forgotten.”—Esquire
Winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and an NAACP Image Award • Named one of the best books of the year by The New York Time, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Esquire, Newsday, and Booklist
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.
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Learned a lot about South Africa, especially the realities of living in a racial society under Apartheid. He had a very admirable and inspiring mother. I was struck by how difficult and impoverished his childhood was and impressed that he managed to do so well (that mother – who he gives full credit to).
I could not put this book down. The combination of South African history and apartheid alongside the life of a mixed race boy made the book very interesting. His experiences were inherently unusual and his managing of these were exciting and often brilliant. I would like for the book to have continued more into how he became a comedian and came to the U.S. but maybe that is another book —which I happily anticipate.
Trevor Noah put a face on apartheid and the associated poverty that went with it. In spite of being born a crime and living a life of crime in South Africa he has risen above it and has become a success. It was very inspirational.
Loved the book and the subject but it ended too soon. Not enough information about Trevor’s life after he left home and what happened to his mother and his little brothers. The book just ended, no follow through.
Great personal account of apartheid. Entertaining, riveting, heart wrenching.
I thought the book was very well written, it was a good light, witty, fast moving book with a very intense as well as frightening subject. Apartheid South Africa is too close in its similarity to the racial situation in the United States through the generations. It’s an understatement to say that Trevor wouldn’t have survived without the strength of his mother and grandmother. It seems as though his father was a vague shadowy figure throughout his life and should have stepped up to help him. I enjoyed reading the book but it’s heartbreaking to think the children have to suffer like that and are still suffering because of unequal treatment both in the United States and South Africa.
Gives one person’s acount of what the apartheid was all about and how it affected the South African people.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
This is a fantastic testimony. Without beating you over the head, Trevor Noah leaves little doubt as to the power of God.
Before I read the book, I figured it was just another TV host’s tale. For some reason I decided to give it a try, and it exceeded my expectations in many ways. REALLY glad I read it.
Very good read
I knew nothing about Trevor Noah before this book. I’d watched a few clips from his talk show on a news app and wondered about his accent.
Wow! Talk about someone who survived despite the odds, who faced far too many challenges in his young life, who wouldn’t let society hold him down. And his mother—a determined and focused woman who persisted, in the terminology of today.
I came away from this quick read with a greater appreciation of the strength of the human spirit. The world needs more Trevor Noahs—but he is one of a kind. If I were still teaching (English) , I would encourage my students to read and reflect on his story.
The writing still is easy to read and difficult to put down. Trevor Noah has a great sense of humor, especially during such a difficult time growing up in South Africa.
If you care about South Africa and would like to read an uplifting story of a sort of black person not only surviving but thriving you will love this book. There is more to Trevor Noah than meets the eyes and ears on the Daily Show.
I have vowed, at the ripe old age of 72, not to reread books but this one I will. I have already recommended it to all my book loving and Trevor Noah loving friends. Bravo Trevor.
I thought this book might be too upsetting to read, but I really liked it. His personal stories are heartbreaking but somehow he writes with enough humor that it didn’t keep me from continuing using to read. He’s a wonderful story teller and he taught me so much about South Africa and apartheid.
Amazing. Unique. So well written. This is different from any other memoir I have read because of the keen insights Noah Trevor has on people, Apartheid, and a place no White person would ever go. This book is strong in Voice. I didn’t even know who Trevor Noah was when someone recommended the book to me. Now I have seen some video clips and he is sharp, funny, and on target. That’s the thing. The best comediens and writers are keen observers of people, and details so many of us miss. Then through their work, they process those for the audience in their unique way. Ultimately it is a powerful story, in every sense of the word story. This is a definite recommend to anyone.
I was so surprised at how engaging this narrative was. Trevor Noah is one of the few celebrities that I would want to meet. His experiences and perspective are truly refreshing and humourous.
Trevor Noah grew up in South African during the end of apartheid. He was the son of a black mother and a white father, which – at that time – was a crime. His parents never were married, and he lived with his mother, but his father was always in his life.
Trevor talks a lot about how it was growing up in a house with a strict mother who wanted him to have everything she didn’t. Trevor was a mischievous young boy and young man who even spent a week in jail for petty crime. But he got out and made something of himself and he says he owes that all to his mother.
This was a good book. Mat and I watch Trevor Noah nightly on Comedy Central. Now that I know his history and how he grew up poorer than poor in South Africa and what it was like to be half black and half white in a world that didn’t know what to make of him. Today he identifies himself as a black man, but when he tried to enforce that identity as a young man, it backfired.
I encourage you to read this book. Unlike most celebrity books I have read where the people had pretty decent childhoods and lives, this one was devastating to read. The stories are truly unbelievable.
This book gave more information on South Africa than even my South African friends know! Wonderful.