Born a Crime

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ΓÇó More than one million copies sold! A ΓÇ£brilliantΓÇ¥ (Lupita NyongΓÇÖo,Time)ΓÇ£poignantΓÇ¥ (Entertainment Weekly)ΓÇ£soul-nourishingΓÇ¥ (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid ΓÇ£NoahΓÇÖs childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes his comedywhile illuminating a dark and brutal period in South AfricaΓÇÖs history that must never be forgotten.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöEsquire Winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and an NAACP Image Award ΓÇó Named one of the best books of the year by The New York TimeUSA TodaySan Francisco ChronicleNPREsquireNewsdayand Booklist Trevor NoahΓÇÖs 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 parentsΓÇÖ indiscretionTrevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his lifebound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that couldat any momentsteal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South AfricaΓÇÖs tyrannical white ruleTrevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventureliving 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 manΓÇÖs relationship with his fearlessrebelliousand fervently religious motherΓÇöhis teammatea woman determined to save her son from the cycle of povertyviolenceand abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life. The stories collected here are by turns hilariousdramaticand deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard timesbeing thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnappingor just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high schoolTrevor 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 timearmed only with a keen sense of humor and a motherΓÇÖs unconventionalunconditional love.