Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Read this whole thing in Trevor Noah’s voice. Not an important fact, but felt worth sharing — probably says something about how I know him, mostly through comedy and impressions. This is an autobiography of sorts. Trevor takes you through growing up mixed-race in apartheid South Africa, in a country where people speak many tongues, a divide that cuts almost as deep as the one between white and non-white. He walks you through what it took to just live without fear. He does all of it with his easygoing tone and that signature satirical humor. The hood was strangely comforting, but comfort can be dangerous. Comfort provides a floor but also a ceiling. As you move through the book, through his life, it gets harder to read. He’s an excellent storyteller; he pulls you right along with him. Many of you may know how his story ends. Fewer might know what happened to his mother. That’s where it really lands. The whole arc of reaching freedom, escaping the black tax, building something for themselves, and now, even a household name that many recongises.