We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch

4.33 AVERAGE

isabelaritika's profile picture

isabelaritika's review against another edition

4.0
challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced
The author is a white person writing for other white people about a culture he is not a part of, and it shows, but I’ll give it to him, because someone needed to write this book. It’s well written but the history is terribly complex so I’ll definitely be re reading it soon to absorb more of the timeline. The interviews are fascinating and I can’t recommend it enough.
Read this alongside the book Small Country (Petit Pays) for more social context. 
aygee's profile picture

aygee's review against another edition

4.0
"The West's post-Holocaust pledge that genocide would never again be tolerated proved to be hollow, and for all the fine sentiments inspired by the memory of Auschwitz, the problem remains that denouncing evil is a far cry from doing good."

"If Rwanda's experience could be said to carry any lessons for the world, it was that endangered peoples who depend on the international community for physical protection stand defenseless."

youmakeapathbywalking's review against another edition

3.0
3.5
mbp_918's profile picture

mbp_918's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 5%
Not engaging and not feeling the narrators voice and cadence 
jenibo's profile picture

jenibo's review against another edition

5.0
Truly an incredible, masterly work of reportage, this harrowing book is unforgettable in its scope and the story it tells. Gourevitch is not content to just recount the events of the genocide, both on a personal and a village wide scale. He seeks to tease out a coherent set of threads from the ethnic and historical tangle, from which we can begin to glean some understanding of some of the causes. He refuses to turn his angry lense from the Rwandan perpetrators and victims of the genocide, and concentrates painful scrutiny on the reactions of the UN during and afterwards. It is difficult to see the reactions of the developed world to the genocide as anything less tragic than the genocide itself, and impossible to see their reactions in any other way than as perpetuating the horrors, both in the immediate aftermath and much later.

palehorse's review against another edition

3.75
challenging dark informative sad medium-paced

jade_flynn's review against another edition

4.0
challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced
laurabishopha's profile picture

laurabishopha's review against another edition

3.0
I found this a bit difficult to stay engaged in, he is clearly an excellent writer but his reporter-type tone coupled with his agenda made me do a bit of a double take. Overall, I liked it, but the stories about really people were woven in and out and felt a bit disjointed.
amymckinnon's profile picture

amymckinnon's review against another edition

4.5
challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

unapologetically_b00kish's review against another edition

5.0
I thought that this book was amazing. However, it left me feeling very angry at the ineptitude of the international community. How could they deny the genocide, then turn around and shovel millions of dollars of aid into the refugee camps that were filled with many people that had committed acts of genocide? I found it to be both informative and thought provoking.