Recommendation: This book is a moving and searingly funny portrayal of Trevor Noah's life growing up in a damaged world during apartheid. It offers an eye-opening perspective on the realities of segregation and racism, while also highlighting the resilience and love of a mother determined to protect her son. Trevor's sharp wit and heartfelt storytelling make this memoir a captivating and inspiring read for anyone interested in personal journeys of triumph and self-discovery.

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• Evergreen Teen Book Award Nominee (2019)
• Lincoln Award Nominee (2019)
• NAACP Image Award for Debut Author and for Biography / Auto-biography (2017)
• Thurber Prize for American Humor (2017)
• Children’s Africana Book Award for Best Book for New Adults (2019)

The memoir of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. 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.

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