A review by bibliostorian
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

5.0

I don't know exactly what I was expecting when I started this book, but I got a whole lot more than I could have bargained for. Trevor Noah's book is at once educational, insightful, heartfelt, and hilarious. He is a master at starting with a funny personal anecdote and using it to tell you about important realities of life during and after apartheid in South Africa and the hard realities of being poor and black. But at its core, this book is a love letter to his mother. She is a headstrong, independent, and fiercely devoted mother, and the foundation of this book is the love that Trevor feels for her. It shows in every page.

Do yourself a favor and listen to this in audiobook format. Trevor reads it himself, and as he is a South African polyglot, it adds a lot of depth to the text. He peppers the book with phrases in Zulu, Xossa, and Afrikaans. It's worth the listen.