Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood#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 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. |
Contents
RUN | 5 |
BORN A CRIME | 21 |
TREVOR PRAY | 35 |
CHAMELEON | 51 |
THE SECOND GIRL | 63 |
LOOPHOLES | 77 |
FUFI | 95 |
ROBERT | 103 |
OUTSIDER | 137 |
A YOUNG MANS LONG AWKWARD OCCASIONALLY | 145 |
COLORBLIND | 153 |
A YOUNG MANS LONG AWKWARD OCCASIONALLY | 163 |
GO HITLER | 185 |
THE CHEESE BOYS | 203 |
THE WORLD DOESNT LOVE YOU | 227 |
MY MOTHERS LIFE | 247 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Abel Abel's Afrikaans Alex Andrew apartheid asked Babiki black kids Bongani called child church colored colored kids cops cousin crying dance Eden Park English everything father felt friends fucking Fufi garage girl give Go Hit-ler grandmother Hammanskraal hang happened hated Hillbrow Hitler hood inside jail Jesus Johannesburg kill knew laughing lived looked Maylene McDonald's minibus Mlungisi mom's mother moved neighborhood Nelson Mandela never night Okay Park person pick play PlayStation police pray pulled racism rand running Sandringham shit someone South Africa Soweto Spliff Star started stay stopped street talk taught Teddy tell There's thing thought toffee apple told took township Trevor trying Tswana turned Tzaneen waiting walked white kids whole woman women Xhosa Zaheera Zulu