Born a Crime is Trevor Noah’s story about growing up in South Africa under apartheid, when his birth as the son of a black Xhosa mother and white Swiss-German father was a crime. It is the most powerful biographical story I have ever read, a truly mind-expanding experience as he conveys a life and a country enormously different from anything I’ve known. But it’s not just his story; it’s also the tale of Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, the woman who chose to bear him under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, and how her character and her choices shaped his life. I can’t find it in myself to try to summarize any of the story itself; you should experience it in Noah’s own words, in the way he chose to tell it.
5/5 stars