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We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda | 
 enlarge | Author: Philip Gourevitch
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  214 reviews
Sales Rank: 2974
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0312243359
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1510967571
EAN: 9780312243357
ASIN: 0312243359
Publication Date: September 1, 1999
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Amazon.com
"Hutus kill Tutsis, then Tutsis kill Hutus--if that's really all there is to it, then no wonder we can't be bothered with it," Philip Gourevitch writes, imagining the response of somebody in a country far from the ethnic strife and mass killings of Rwanda. But the situation is not so simple, and in this complex and wrenching book, he explains why the Rwandan genocide should not be written off as just another tribal dispute. The "stories" in this book's subtitle are both the author's, as he repeatedly visits this tiny country in an attempt to make sense of what has happened, and those of the people he interviews. These include a Tutsi doctor who has seen much of her family killed over decades of Tutsi oppression, a Schindleresque hotel manager who hid hundreds of refugees from certain death, and a Rwandan bishop who has been accused of supporting the slaughter of Tutsi schoolchildren, and can only answer these charges by saying, "What could I do?" Gourevitch, a staff writer for the New Yorker, describes Rwanda's history with remarkable clarity and documents the experience of tragedy with a sober grace. The reader will ask along with the author: 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: Read 209 more reviews...
 One of the best books I have read in a long time July 26, 2008
Philip Gourevitch, in We Wish to Inform You, has accomplished an incredible feat: a moral and reasoned history of an insane situation. He manages to cut through all of the misinformation that we so often hear about the Rwandan Genocide and write something truly informative.
Other reviews on Amazon have complained about his focus on the political/violent situation in the entire region, but I strongly disagree. How are we to understand the genocide without its context and without the context that it created in nearby countries? I also found myself very interested in Rwanda's (and the region's) possibilities for a decent future.
This book is also damning towards the "international community," as well as international journalism of our times. The "international community" failed to intervene in the genocide - indeed, France even armed the genocidaires - and even fed and housed the genocidaires after they fled Rwanda. And Western Journalists consistently wrote the type of stories that were no more informative than "people are killing each other." Well, in this book, Philip Gourevitch has completely negated any previous excuse about the complexity of the situation or how little information was available, because he managed to quite clearly get to the heart of the situation and explain it quite easily, but in all its complexity, to us non-experts and non-historians.
The best, most educational and most gripping account of the genocide June 20, 2008
I've lived in Africa near Rwanda for several years and have studied the Rwanda genocide extensively in graduate school. There is no better book about the genocide than "We Wish to Inform You.." It's extremely sad, frustrating, and fascinating at the same time. Gourevitch tells the stories so well that this doesn't read like non-fiction. My favorite part about this work is how he goes into detail about the refugee situation after the genocide, a time not as well documented as the actual genocide. It was fascinating how the international aid machine facilitated more murders by the interahamwe. The story he unravels is engaging and suspenseful and you can't wait to turn the page to find out what nugget of knowledge he turns up next. Pitching curveball after curveball, you are bound to learn a lot about many issues surrounding the genocide by reading this book.
 Average, loses momentum May 9, 2008
I purchased and read this book last year, as I have studied the subject on this one quite extensively.
This book gets off to a good start, but loses interest as the book progresses.
There is also a lack of real-life survivors and witnesses imput, which could have made it more interesting.
The book however shed light onto many of the problems and atrocities that occurred after the genocide - which I wasn't particularly savy about previously - most notablly the problems in the Congo as a result of Genocidaires fleeing and relocating there - and still not losing their blood-lust and total disrespect for life.
Still a good addition to your home library however.
Derek Meade, NSW, Australia
 Never Again, again February 23, 2008
We now know the basic story. Hutu extremists killed Tutsis and the world ignored them. The "International Community" from President Clinton to the Red Cross ignored Rwanda and allowed it to happen.
In Gourevitch's book, he looks not only at those months but also afterwards. The struggle and continued animosity between Tutsis and Hutus led to the tangled web of involvement in the Congolese wars. Mobutu stood on one side; while Kabalia stood on the other.
The work itself is insightful and well-written. However, while he is quick to condemn the Hutu Power and the "international community" (both correct in being condemned) he does little to give similar condemnation of Paul Kagame or his compatriots who are now in charge in Rwanda.
The world stood by and ignored the genocide and all we can do now about it is say "Never Again," again.
A indictment of the international response to genocide.. February 22, 2008
Those who think "pece at all costs" would be well to read this. There are times when a person, a country, a WORLD, must take action. The Rwandan Genocide was one of those times.
The most sickening aspect of the tragedy of Rwanda--indeed all genocides--are that they were and are preventable.
Philip Gourevitch does a superb job of expressing his outrage over the lack of will displayed by the UN and US to the mass murder of the tutis by the Hutus'.
I highly recommend this book. This book should be required reading in high schools throughout the country. It is a real eye opener.
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