Born a Crime

The recap

Trevor Noah was born in Johannesburg to a Black mother and a white father at a time when apartheid law made their relationship a criminal offense, which meant that his very existence was evidence of a crime. In this collection of linked stories he looks back on growing up as a mixed-race child who fit none of the country's rigid racial boxes, kept largely out of sight in his early years and later hustling his way through the townships as the old order gave way to a new and chaotic democracy. The heart of the book is his mother, Patricia, a devout, stubborn and very funny woman who refused to let anyone tell her what she could not do. Noah writes with a comedian's timing, but between the laugh-out-loud scenes he explains with clarity how apartheid divided people by language and color, and the result is both hilarious and quietly devastating. It is a coming-of-age story and a love letter to a remarkable mother.