Memoirs & Coffee Book Group to Discuss "Born A Crime" by Trevor Noah

Bernardsville Library’s book group, Memoirs and Coffee, will meet on Tuesday, October 24 at 10:30 am to discuss "Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood" (2016) by Trevor Noah. [The author will not be present.] It's the compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man's coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.

Trevor Noah's unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. He was born to 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, the boy was kept mostly indoors for the earliest 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, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa's tyrannical white rule, Noah and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

"Born a Crime" is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man's relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother.
No registration is needed to come to this free library program. Please call Bernardsville Library at 766-0118 for more information.