Born A Crime

The #1 Bestseller and Award-winning Modern Classic — with an exclusive new afterword.

Trevor Noah was BORN A CRIME – not because he could answer back in five languages; not because his mother threw him out of the window of a moving car; not because he shoplifted; not because he accidentally burnt down someone’s house with a magnifying glass; not even because he took Hitler to a barmitzvah – but because this was South Africa and his mother was black and his father was white…

The compelling, inspiring, (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. One of the world’s leading comedians and host of The Daily Show for over 7 years, Trevor Noah was the son of 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 first 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, take him away.

A collection of eighteen personal stories, Born a Crime tells the story of a mischievous young boy growing into a restless young man as he struggles to find his place in a world where he was never supposed to exist. Born a Crime is equally the story of that young man’s fearless, rebellious and fervently religious mother – a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence and abuse that ultimately threatens her own life. Noah illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and an unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a personal portrait of an unlikely childhood in a dangerous time, as moving and unforgettable as the very best memoirs and as funny as his own hilarious stand-up. Born a Crime is a must read.