num_pages: 289
description: The memoir of one mans coming-of-age set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. Trevor Noahs 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 Africas 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 mans relationship with his fearless rebellious and fervently religious motherhis teammate a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty violence and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
language: English
title: Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
publisher: Doubleday Canada