Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Publisher
Spiegel & Grau
Publication Year
2016
ISBN
9780399588174
Pages
288 pages
Genre
memoir
Format
full length
Item Type
Nonfiction
Annotation
Noah's path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at the time such a union was punishable by five years in prison. As he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist, his mother is determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life....
Grade Level
9-12
Lexile Measure
HL770L
Diversity Topics
Family Relationships; Racial Diversity; Single parent; Step parent; Family violence; Biracial; Interracial; Race discrimination; single mother; step father; step siblings; abusive step father; physical abuse; biracial child; interracial parents; racism; segregation
Main Character
male child
Race/Ethnicities
Black (South African) / White (German/Swiss)
Family Formation
single mother
Awards
Audie Award, 2018, Finalist, Audiobook of the Year
Keywords
South Africa; apartheid; Xhosa; religion; Christianity; languages; mother and son relationship; crime
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Noah, Trevor, "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" (2016). Diverse Families. 677.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/677