Reviews

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

abergland7's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

sydneyqamar's review against another edition

5.0

Poignant history of the Rwandan genocide and recount of a journalist's travels throughout Rwanda after the genocide. The drama of the genocide prevents this book from reading as a dull nonfiction book, much less as a dispassionate history. After the first half provides all the details of the genocide, Philip Gourevitch delves into the emotional stories of people obtained on the ground in Africa. Considering the lack of news coverage during the genocide and the West's debatable negligence, the book gives a thorough understanding of an often unfortunately overlooked event in recent history. Though not necessarily a must-read, bump it into the top 5 of your to-read list.

nardleclanger's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

4.5

roselyn's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.5

gadicohen93's review against another edition

5.0

Holy critter. I started this book knowing the Rwandan genocide was basically composed of Hutus killing Tutsis in the mid-1990s, and ended it with a radically transformed mindset toward so many institutions and people and ideas. Chief among them is the UN and the international community as a whole, who are perhaps the most responsible, I think, for ignoring the genocide and facilitating the massacres that followed it.

The book itself was easy to read, surprisingly, since it dealt with some of the most unfathomable human situations to have transpired in recent history. My only problem with Gourevitch is that he never really got to the red-hot human center of the Rwandan genocide: How were so many of the Hutus so completely inhuman? How could they have done what they did? It's true that he explains the history leading up to the genocide, but he never really investigates the thought processes that guided the Hutus in their rampage. Because of that, I felt like he cheated us out of a 100% complete understanding of the conflict.

Overall, however, this book was one of the most illuminating I have ever read.

tacitparadox's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

dominicangirl's review against another edition

informative sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Genocide

kelseyfactorial's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

4.5

phantomwise's review against another edition

5.0

I desperately wish there were more stars, because this book deserves all of them. A++, would read again.

alessi_germano's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0