An Unforgettable Story of Survival: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch

Pamela Murray: I have been interested in the Rwandan genocide because my Barnard anthropology prof, Miss McLellan told her class in 1960, that there would be a blood bath there. She had done field work in Rwanda several years earlier. Also, I heard Romeo Dallaire speak when he came to Yellowknife about 10 years ago.

This book was fascinating to read. The author has gone to great lengths to tell a very in-depth story. I feel so much better informed about this topic now that I have read his history of the genocide.

Canada on Jul 04, 2022

Fernando Sanz: 'We wish to inform you...' it's a we'll written, comprehensive work about the Rwandan genocide. It is filled with quotes, dates and information about the years prior and after this tragedy. Easy to read and to understand, it is also great for non-native English readers. Highly recommended!

Spain on Aug 10, 2020

Christopher Byrne: This is a well written and well worth reading book about a terribly difficult and simultaneously complex yet simple matter. I think the structure jumps around a little in the later stages but overall this is a superb introduction to one of the more terrifying episodes of human history.

United Kingdom on Feb 21, 2020

Anna T: A really amazing read. I was recommended it and have since bought it for two friends. If you are interested in the Rwandan genocide, this book is an excellent place to start. It contains a high level of factual material, but this is presented in such an interesting and gripping way that you will find it hard to put down. It is more readable than most thrillers and will give you a thorough insight into an event that the West tends to ignore.

United Kingdom on Jul 21, 2015

William Hory: Knowing I was going to visit Rwanda as a tourist, I wanted to have a better understanding of Rwanda’s recent history. Wow, I had no idea how much one book could contribute to my experience. In less than 400 pages, I felt I learned about as much as one could about the colonial history, the genocide (before, during, and after), as well as the culture, people, and their traditions.
During my visit, the knowledge acquired from this extraordinary book allowed me to better appreciate and understand Rwanda today, as well as provided me the ability to have very intelligent and revealing conversations with many Rwandans.
This was not just a book of facts and figures, but a comprehensive collection of all that were involved during the Genocide. While there are plenty of first hand accounts from the victims themselves, Phillip Gourevitch was also able to interview both Tutsi and Hutus’s as well as military leaders, clergy, NGO’s, and many others trapped in this insane period. His access to Paul Kagame, currently Rwanda’s very successful President, allowed for a perspective not typically found in historical accounts of the Genocide.
The authors insight into the colonial...

United States on Sep 14, 2014

Ryan: The book was a required reading for a course I was taking on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Conflict, and while I can fully understand why this book can be regarded as suitable for academic use (exploring the roles of primordialism and constructivism of ethnic identities and conflicts), it is by itself an eminently readable book in its own right. The wonder of this book is not merely the way that Gourevitch made a book on genocide readable, but rather that in doing so he didn't lose belittle the severity of the conflict, and wrote not as an outsider looking in, but as an author who actually interacted with the victims on both sides of the conflict.
While this book may not be a complete textbook on the conflict in Rwanda, it does give a very valuable insight and I for one feel my understanding of the genocide is superior as a result of it.

United Kingdom on Apr 04, 2014

PP JJ: This book gives a fascinating insight into the Rwandan genocide and associated subjects like the questionable motives & destructive actions of international aid organisations & the UN (and Western governments), the broader conflict in the region in the 1990s and the social and political development of Rwanda itself. The scope of the book is broader than the genocide itself but far from being a meandering detour the post-genocide story of the camps- the Hutu extremist groups reforming in exile and the eventual return is a compelling one in itself and without it any account of the Rwandan genocide is incomplete.

Not quite as necessary is the coverage of the relief organisations but I think the issues the author has highlighted are very worthwhile considering. We're used to thinking of relief organisations as infallible, benevolent and also neutral actors in disaster situations and we also take their knowledge of the situation as Gospel, yet accepting the authors views as correct, the various NGOs collectively and their staff individually were creating a very dangerous situation and had a wholly inadequate understanding of what was happening around them. Arguably they...

United States on Oct 09, 2013

Craig Matteson: I have various views of this book. First, it is a very important account of one of the great tragedies of our time. It upsets me that we still only speak of this tragedy without enough specificity. It is too often just a conversation about the million killed in Rwanda without enough focus on who did the killing. It wasn't just a tribe against another. It was people hacking others to death. This book gets us to some of those individuals - both those murdered and those murdering - and that is the chief reason to appreciate the book and thank Mr. Gourevitch for it.
However, I wish there some images in the book beyond the couple of maps. Yes, Mr. Gourevitch is a fine writer and helps us see with words. But this kind of genocide cries out for photographic documentation. Maybe there isn't any that is appropriate for the book. But I feel the lack just the same.
Finally, this is an important document of the Rwandan terror, but it isn't the final story. It isn't the complete story. That has yet to be written. But I found reading this book a strange sort of nightmare. Everything seems real and it has its own frightening impetus, but it is like a dream where you want things to stop but...

United States on Mar 15, 2004