It was designed to create hate and fear and disunity, not only between whites and blacks but between coloureds and other races. The book showed me the gaping holes in my knowledge of what I thought was simply another case of white racism to blacks. It was intelligently but humorously written, but what surprised me was how much I learned about South African culture during/after Apartheid.

I have been a fan of Trevor's comedy so when he released this book I knew I wanted to read it. Just because hate is taught, it doesn't have to be learned. If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be? Also, Trevor's impersonation of his younger self is very endearing. What does Trevor Noah bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?Īs above - it's the accents and languages. The whole thing is moving, shocking, and still funny in the way Trevor tells it.

The young Trevor's take on the incident is incredibly sweet and naive, yet really quite dark and upsetting. He, his mother, and baby Andrew jumping out of the van (technically, Trevor was thrown from the van), and running away from the threatening driver. One of the first scenes that Trevor describes is the one that still stays with me the clearest and the one I found most impactful. What was one of the most memorable moments of Born a Crime? He also speaks the non-English languages, saving the reader from attempting to read them themselves. Having Trevor imitate the different languages as he gave history and explanations of South African culture and Apartheid added a new dimension and an immediate understanding of the 'character' as soon as you heard the voice/accent he used. This is a book that really makes sense as an audiobook because it's narrated by the author who does a brilliant job, but particularly because of the languages and accents. Would you consider the audio edition of Born a Crime to be better than the print version?ĭefinitely. Moving, hilarious, surprisingly informative His stories weave together to form a personal portrait of an unlikely childhood in a dangerous time, as moving and unforgettable as the very best memoirs and as funny as Noah's own hilarious stand-up. 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, Noah illuminates his curious world with incisive wit and unflinching honesty. Born a Crime is equally the story of that young man's fearless, rebellious and fervently religious mother - a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence and abuse that ultimately threatens her own life. Living proof of his parents' indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the first 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, take him away.Ī collection of 18 personal stories, Born a Crime tells the story of a mischievous young boy growing into a restless young man as he struggles to find his place in a world where he was never supposed to exist. Noah was born a crime, son of a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. As host of the US hit show The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he provides viewers around the globe with their nightly dose of biting satire, but here Noah turns his focus inward, giving listeners a deeply personal, heartfelt and humorous look at the world that shaped him. One of the comedy world's brightest new voices, Trevor Noah is a light-footed but sharp-minded observer of the absurdities of politics, race and identity, sharing jokes and insights drawn from the wealth of experience acquired in his relatively young life. The compelling, inspiring (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.

Trevor noah born a crime audio book