Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Image from amazon

The subtitle is Stories from a South African Childhood. Good thing they're true: you couldn't make this stuff up. This audio memoir lands the listener in the midst of the bizarrely illogical world of Apartheid. The best thing about these astonishing, terrifying and sometimes hilarious stories is the narrative voice of Trevor Noah. The second best is his portrayal of his mother. A big fan of Jesus and a regular at Black Church, White Church and Coloured Church, she knows right from wrong. The machinations of the regime are clearly wrong, so she doesn't feel obliged to follow its rules. More importantly, she understands how it operates.

Against staggering odds, Trevor's mom did more than survive. She consciously educated her son to break the historic cycle of repression and violence he was born into. And that's just one of the miracles in this inspiring book.

Trevor Noah is an internationally celebrated comedian. Last month, he featured in Vancouver at the Just For Laughs Festival. For those who can't get to see him on one of his live tours, his memoir is widely available and his shows can now be seen on Netflix.

I feel sure he's the only performer who has had an angry policeman shoot his monitor to death in a Soweto street, killing the attached computer in the process. Just one of the many weird turning points in Trevor Noah's amazing life.