美国当红脱口秀《小崔每日秀》主持人特雷弗·诺亚一出生就犯了罪：因为他的父亲是白人，母亲是黑人，而在当时种族隔离的南非，这样的结合属于犯罪，他父母会面临五年有期徒刑的惩罚，诺亚自己也会被送到孤儿院。
为了保护诺亚，他那位勇敢、反叛、幽默、坚强、虔诚信教的母亲，想出了各种办法，在歧视、贫困、暴力的怪圈中，竭力为他创造了一种正常的生活。而自幼便遗传了母亲性格的诺亚，除了像大多数青少年那样成长外，还需要学会如何 “尴尬”地在一个他本不该存在的世界上生活。这本回忆录中收集的故事，时而幽默，时而惊险，时而感人，但无一例外都彰显了诺亚惊人的喜剧天赋，以及一位母亲无止境的、无条件的爱。
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. 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 readers a deeply personal, heartfelt and humorous look at the world that shaped him.
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. 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.
A collection of eighteen 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. 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.
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 an incisive wit and an unflinching honesty. 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. Born a Crime is a must read.
“一部引人入胜的回忆录……时而警世、悲伤、时而逗趣，诺亚的书让我们透过他的家庭，看到生活在南非种族隔离制度下的悲惨样貌……说到底，不只是一个描绘在南非种族隔离制度下成长的震撼故事，也是一封作者写给他那位不平凡的母亲的情书。”——《纽约时报》角古美智子
事实上，诺亚的母亲是这本书里的英雄……她给儿子的礼物，就是让他学会独立思考，通过自己的角度看待世界……同诺亚的众多粉丝一样，我很感激她做到了这一点。——比尔·盖茨 “2017夏季书单推荐”
特雷弗·诺亚（Trevor Noah），1984年出生于南非约翰内斯堡，曾担任电视台、广播电台主持人和脱口秀演员，声名鹊起之后于2014年底赴美国发展，担任美国电视台脱口秀节目《每日秀》（The Daily Show）的通讯员，后在2015年成为该节目的主持人。
