We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
by: Philip Gourevitch
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Amazon.com Review:
"Hutus kill Tutsis, then Tutsis kill Hutus--if that's reallyall there is to it, then no wonder we can't be bothered with it,"Philip Gourevitch writes, imagining the response of somebody in acountry far from the ethnic strife and mass killings of Rwanda. Butthe situation is not so simple, and in this complex and wrenchingbook, he explains why the Rwandan genocide should not be written offas just another tribal dispute.
The "stories" in this book's subtitle are both the author's, as herepeatedly visits this tiny country in an attempt to make sense ofwhat has happened, and those of the people he interviews. Theseinclude a Tutsi doctor who has seen much of her family killed overdecades of Tutsi oppression, a Schindleresque hotel manager who hidhundreds of refugees from certain death, and a Rwandan bishop who hasbeen accused of supporting the slaughter of Tutsi schoolchildren, andcan only answer these charges by saying, "What could I do?"Gourevitch, a staff writer for the New Yorker, describesRwanda's history with remarkable clarity and documents the experienceof tragedy with a sober grace. The reader will ask along with theauthor: Why does this happen? And why don't we bother to stop it?--Maria Dolan
Product Description:
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.
In April 1994, the Rwandan government called upon everyone in the Hutu majority to kill each member of the Tutsi minority, and over the next three months 800,000 Tutsis perished in the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews. Philip Gourevitch's haunting work is an anatomy of the war in Rwanda, a vivid history of the tragedy's background, and an unforgettable account of its aftermath. One of the most acclaimed books of the year, this account will endure as a chilling document of our time.
"Hutus kill Tutsis, then Tutsis kill Hutus--if that's reallyall there is to it, then no wonder we can't be bothered with it,"Philip Gourevitch writes, imagining the response of somebody in acountry far from the ethnic strife and mass killings of Rwanda. Butthe situation is not so simple, and in this complex and wrenchingbook, he explains why the Rwandan genocide should not be written offas just another tribal dispute.
The "stories" in this book's subtitle are both the author's, as herepeatedly visits this tiny country in an attempt to make sense ofwhat has happened, and those of the people he interviews. Theseinclude a Tutsi doctor who has seen much of her family killed overdecades of Tutsi oppression, a Schindleresque hotel manager who hidhundreds of refugees from certain death, and a Rwandan bishop who hasbeen accused of supporting the slaughter of Tutsi schoolchildren, andcan only answer these charges by saying, "What could I do?"Gourevitch, a staff writer for the New Yorker, describesRwanda's history with remarkable clarity and documents the experienceof tragedy with a sober grace. The reader will ask along with theauthor: Why does this happen? And why don't we bother to stop it?--Maria Dolan
Product Description:
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.
In April 1994, the Rwandan government called upon everyone in the Hutu majority to kill each member of the Tutsi minority, and over the next three months 800,000 Tutsis perished in the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews. Philip Gourevitch's haunting work is an anatomy of the war in Rwanda, a vivid history of the tragedy's background, and an unforgettable account of its aftermath. One of the most acclaimed books of the year, this account will endure as a chilling document of our time.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Wrenching, compelling... a tour of the dark side of human nature...
There are honestly few books that I would say that EVERYONE should be required to read, but this is one of them...I read this book for the first time almost a year ago, and it is still as haunting now as it was then.. it's truly both a consuming and provoking book. You can feel the effect that the experience had on the author on almost every page. The madness of hatred that fueled this genocide, but also the ambiguity and lack of interest from the rest of the world that abbetted it. I disagree with ... Read More
Rating: - So Thankful I Made the Effort to Read This Book
If you had asked me - hey, want to read a book about the genocide in Rwanda?I would have declined. But luckily a friend lent me this book and I had little else to read.I would tell everyone now - this book is a must-read.The subject matter and the lessons learned are of fundamental importance and the book is well-researched and well-written.Make the effort.Read this book.
Rating: - Required reading, amazing.
Wow.This is an extremely powerful book.I had read some about the genocide in Rwanda before, I knew the basic story and the most general aspects of what happened, but I had nowhere NEAR the amount of knowledge about it that is packed into this book.This is a fantastic book to read for people who enjoy history and/or politics, as well as world events in general.There is so much information in these pages that truthfully I feel like I should read it again because I know it didn't all sink in.... Read More
Rating: - An Essential Book for Anyone Hoping to Understand the History of the Rwandan Genocide
I read this book with my heart in my stomach.At the same time I could not put it down.For anyone interested in understanding the history of Rwanda, the genocide that occurred there, the colonialization that pitted the Hutus against the Tutsis and the artificiality of separating these two groups, this is a brilliant and essential book.
I learned about how the Rwandan population was arbitrarily separated into two groups - the Tutsis and the Hutus - by the Belgians.They are actually ... Read More
Rating: - Never Again - Again and Again
Perhaps it should surprise me less that locales once mauled by basest violence are often grotesquely tranquil:the soothing splash of waves at the D-Day beaches of Normandy; silently drifting snow flakes settling in a white shroud over Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Treblinka; flowers, flags and cold observant granite bearing testimony to the names of the desaparecidos in Santiago, Chile; the reflective silence of visitors at Tuol Seng, Cambodia; the solitary sentinel of stone remembering slain students ... Read More
- Wrenching, compelling... a tour of the dark side of human nature...There are honestly few books that I would say that EVERYONE should be required to read, but this is one of them...I read this book for the first time almost a year ago, and it is still as haunting now as it was then.. it's truly both a consuming and provoking book. You can feel the effect that the experience had on the author on almost every page. The madness of hatred that fueled this genocide, but also the ambiguity and lack of interest from the rest of the world that abbetted it. I disagree with ... Read More
- So Thankful I Made the Effort to Read This BookIf you had asked me - hey, want to read a book about the genocide in Rwanda?I would have declined. But luckily a friend lent me this book and I had little else to read.I would tell everyone now - this book is a must-read.The subject matter and the lessons learned are of fundamental importance and the book is well-researched and well-written.Make the effort.Read this book.
- Required reading, amazing.Wow.This is an extremely powerful book.I had read some about the genocide in Rwanda before, I knew the basic story and the most general aspects of what happened, but I had nowhere NEAR the amount of knowledge about it that is packed into this book.This is a fantastic book to read for people who enjoy history and/or politics, as well as world events in general.There is so much information in these pages that truthfully I feel like I should read it again because I know it didn't all sink in.... Read More
- An Essential Book for Anyone Hoping to Understand the History of the Rwandan GenocideI read this book with my heart in my stomach.At the same time I could not put it down.For anyone interested in understanding the history of Rwanda, the genocide that occurred there, the colonialization that pitted the Hutus against the Tutsis and the artificiality of separating these two groups, this is a brilliant and essential book.
I learned about how the Rwandan population was arbitrarily separated into two groups - the Tutsis and the Hutus - by the Belgians.They are actually ... Read More
- Never Again - Again and AgainPerhaps it should surprise me less that locales once mauled by basest violence are often grotesquely tranquil:the soothing splash of waves at the D-Day beaches of Normandy; silently drifting snow flakes settling in a white shroud over Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Treblinka; flowers, flags and cold observant granite bearing testimony to the names of the desaparecidos in Santiago, Chile; the reflective silence of visitors at Tuol Seng, Cambodia; the solitary sentinel of stone remembering slain students ... Read More
