In his 2016 memoir Born a Crime, comedian Trevor Noah recounts his childhood in South Africa under the apartheid government and the first few years of democratic rule by the nation’s black majority. Born in 1984 to a black Xhosa mother and a white Swiss expatriate father, Noah is not merely an anomaly in apartheid South Africa; his existence is actually illegal because the regime outlawed relationships between people of different races. While the 18 chapters of Born a Crime generally trace Noah’s childhood from his birth to the beginning of his comedy career after high school, they consist of vignettes rather than a linear story. Each chapter also begins with a short preface, generally about the social and historical context behind the events Noah recounts.