Recommend books Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (One World Essentials)

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Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (One World Essentials)

★★★★

Trevor Noah・・Ended

Updated: November 15, 2016

Content length: 264 pages

language: English

Source: amazon

8.5

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Nanpin (male-oriented) novels comedy Literary Fiction Ended

#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.

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📚 Why We Recommend It

Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime isn’t just a memoir—it’s a masterclass in turning darkness into light, one sharp, sparkling story at a time.

Born to a white Swiss father and a Black Xhosa mother during South Africa’s apartheid era, Noah’s very existence was illegal. His childhood unfolds in a world of secrets: hiding from police in cupboards, surviving on caterpillars when money ran out, even being hurled from a moving car by his mother to escape danger. Yet what makes this book unforgettable is how he wraps these harrowing truths in humor as sharp as a blade.

He jokes about church-hopping like collecting Starbucks points, teases his mother’s “turbo mode” sprints in high heels while chasing him, and turns the absurdity of racial labels into a playground of wit. But beneath the laughter lies a profound heart: a mother’s stubborn love defying a system that tried to erase them, a boy navigating a world that refused to box him in, and a nation’s painful journey toward freedom.

It’s raw, riotous, and deeply human—proof that even in the darkest times, laughter can be both a shield and a bridge. For anyone who craves stories that challenge, charm, and stay with you long after the last page, this is essential reading.