Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

The story is a coming-of-age memoir written in the latter stages of apartheid and the turbulent post-apartheid days.

Trevor Noah's journey from South Africa during the apartheid era to working at The Daily Show started with a crime: he was born. Trevor was born into a world where being the child of a black Xhosa mother and a white Swiss father carried a five-year jail sentence. Living evidence of his parents' imprudence, Trevor spent the most of his early years inside due to his mother's drastic and sometimes ridiculous efforts to protect him from a government that may at any time take him away. After generations of oppressive white rule came to an end in South Africa, Trevor and his mother embarked on a wonderful trip where they lived freely and openly and took use of the chances that had been achieved.

In Born a Crime, a mischievous little kid finds himself in a world where he was never meant to be, and as he gets older, he becomes a restless young man. It also tells the tale of the young man's bond with his courageous, disobedient, and very devout mother, who was his teammate and was committed to breaking the cycle of abuse, violence, and poverty that would eventually endanger her own life.