apartheid

As an avid watcher of The Daily Show, I knew Trevor Noah was born and raised in South Africa. What I didn't know was how amazing his life circumstances were growing up and just how much he had to overcome to be the person he is today. In Born A Crime, Noah chronicles his life as he remembers it, detailing not only his experiences but also the culture of South Africa just before, then after, the end of apartheid. During apartheid it was illegal for black and white people to be together, let alone have a child. Noah's birth, to a black mother and white father, made him literally born a crime.

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1952 South Africa is the setting for this mystery that brings the first years of apartheid to life. An Afrikaner police Captain has been found shot dead and left face down in a river near his hometown of Jacob’s Rest. Detective Emmanuel Cooper is dispatched from Johannesburg to solve the case. He is assisted by “the old Jew” and a black constable, a fact that wins Cooper no favor with the Afrikaner “Special Branch” who show up to take over the investigation and employ somewhat less than ethical tactics. The dead captain has a past that his three sons know nothing about – and they want to keep