Prohibido nacer: Memorias de racismo, rabia y risa. / Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

About Prohibido nacer: Memorias de racismo, rabia y risa. / Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

MÁS DE UN MILLÓN DE EJEMPLARES VENDIDOS

NOMBRADO UNO DE LOS MEJORES LIBROS DEL AÑO POR Michiko Kakutani, New York Times • USA Today • San Francisco Chronicle • NPR • Esquire • Newsday • Booklist

La impresionante trayectoria de Trevor Noah, desde su infancia en Sudáfrica durante el apartheid hasta el escritorio de The Daily Show, comenzó con un acto criminal: su nacimiento. Trevor nació de un padre suizo blanco y una madre Xhosa negra, en una época de la historia sudafricana en que tal unión era castigada con cinco años de prisión. Como prueba viviente de la indiscreción de sus padres, Trevor permaneció los primeros años de su vida bajo el estricto resguardo de su madre, quien se veía obligada a tomar medidas extremas —y, a veces, absurdas— para ocultar a Trevor de un gobierno que podría, en cualquier momento, llevárselo.

Prohibido nacer es la historia de un niño travieso que se convierte en un joven inquieto mientras lucha por encontrarse a sí mismo en un mundo en el que nunca se suponía que debía existir. También es la historia de la relación de ese joven con su intrépida, rebelde y ferviente madre religiosa: su compañera de equipo, una mujer decidida a salvar a su hijo del ciclo de pobreza, violencia y abuso que en última instancia amenazaría su propia vida.

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 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

NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Michiko Kakutani, New York Times • USA Today • San Francisco Chronicle • NPR • Esquire • Newsday • Booklist

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor 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, Trevor 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, Trevor 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—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. 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, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.