We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

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Summary: Shaming the so called civilised world
Review: Having never studied history, political science or the like as a student I came across this book quite by accident in a Leeds bookshop. I think it was the ancient question of WHY? that encouraged me to buy it - WHY? the holocaust? WHY? Bosnia? WHY? evil in this world? I just couldn't understand the mass murder of so many people and after reading his book - I must admit I still can't. The thing that struck me was the shockingly irresponsible behaviour of the UN, the Aid agencies, the EU (esp. France) and generally anybody who could have stopped the genocide. This book should be distibuted to all the leaders of the western democracies(?) and serve as a wake up call to those that see themselves as guardians of the new world order. How very appallingly they have all behaved. I think what is really evident from his writing is the good character of those in Africa that really want to lead an African Renaissance. Those that really have any hope in rectifying the problems that currently plague Africa are Africans, Philip will agree with me on what a bloody awful mess we (the post-imperial nations) have made of the situation, and continue to do so. I say good luck to President Kagame and thanks to Philip for shouting in the darkness - let's hope someone hears him. Fab - recommended reading for all who call themselves human.

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Summary: A compelling read
Review: This book was "forced" on me by a relative who'd read it and thought everyone in her circle -- her relatives, friends, workmates, EVERYONE -- should read it. Now, I know why. Having been in Africa (though not Rwanda) in 1994 and having experienced the horror, trauma and helplessness that Gourevitch describes so well, I was very reluctant to re-examine this horrible chapter of human history. Gourevitch's passionate and extremely well written account of this tragedy should be made required reading for all of us. I'm as cynical as the next guy -- yet, today, I went out and bought a copy of this book for everyone in my small group of friends. Read it, and you'll understand.

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Summary: An Absolute Must READ
Review: This is one of the most profound books I have read in a long time. If you have wondered how the genocide could happen, this author tells you. He not only is a reporter but truely a great scholar.He actually identifies the dynamics and reasons. This should be a must read for all high school seniors. Buy it.

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Summary: Africa my Continent Why?
Review: IN the province of Kibungo, in eastern Rwanda, near the Tanzanian border, there's a rocky hill called Nyarubuye, with a church where many Tutsis were slaughtered in April 1994. A year after the killing, I flew to Nyarubuye in a United Nations helicopter, low over the hills in the morning mists, with the banana trees like green starbursts dense over the slopes. The uncut grass blew back as we dropped into the centre of a parish schoolyard. A lone soldier materialised, and shook our hands with shy formality. I stepped up into the open doorway of a classroom. At least 50, mostly decomposed cadavers covered the floor, wadded in clothing, their belongings strewn about and smashed. Macheted skulls had rolled here and there. The dead looked like pictures of the dead. They did not smell. They did not buzz with flies. They had been killed 13 months earlier, and they hadn't been moved. Skin stuck here and there over the bones, many of which lay scattered from the bodies, dismembered by the killers, or by scavengers - birds, dogs, bugs. The more complete figures looked a lot like people, which they were once. A woman in a cloth wrap printed with flowers lay near the door. Her fleshless hip bones were high and her legs slightly spread, and a child's skeleton extended between them. Her torso was hollowed out. Her ribs and spinal column poked through the rotting cloth. Her head was tipped back and her mouth was open; a strange image - half agony, half repose. I had never been among the dead before. What to do? Look? Yes. I had come to see them. The dead had been left unburied at Nyarubuye for memorial purposes - and there they were, so intimately exposed. I didn't need to see them. I already knew, and believed, what had happened in Rwanda. Yet looking at the buildings and the bodies, and hearing the silence of the place, with the grand Italianate basilica standing there deserted, and the beds of exquisite, death-fertilised flowers blooming over the corpses, it was still strangely unimaginable. All this is common In Africa. But Why? Please buy this book

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Summary: I never thought I'd read this book
Review: I never thought I'd read a book about such a grim subject. Gourevitch comments in the introduction that the reader must have some sort of sick curiosity to be reading a book about mass killings and genocide in Rwanda. But then he says, "Perhaps it is more abhorrent not to look, not to try to understand what happened there and why. It helps tremendously that it is such a well written book. He keeps the reader with him. beckoning you to continue as he reveals fascinating, if sickening details, and stark observations. The stoicism and fatalism of the Hutus who accepted their horrible, inevitable deaths, amazes. I hope many people read this book. I suggested it to my book group and got apathetic shrugs. The fact that I found it at Costco is a hopeful sign of mass distribution. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families deserves every rave review and prestigious award it has garnered.

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Summary: I never thought I'd read this book
Review: I never thought I'd read a book about so grim and grusome a subject as genocide in Rwanda. Gourevitch comments in the introduction that you must have some sort of sick curiosity to be reading the book. But then he says, perhaps it is more abhorrent not to look, not to want to understand. It helps a lot that it is a wonderfully written book. It fascinates with details and hidden insights. And it breaks your heart with the fatalism of the Hutus who courageously accepted their horrible, senseless fate. I hope many people read this book. I suggested it to my book group and just got apathetic shrugs. The fact that I found it, and finally grabbed it, as Costco is a hopeful sign of mass distribution.

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Summary: Gourevitch highlights role of the complicit west
Review: Although many reviews have already been posted which cover most of the bases, the thing about this book which most confronted me was the disasterous way in which the international community sought to respond to the Rwandan crisis. Gourevtich documents two chilling subtexts to the story of the genocide: 1) the west's role in shaping the political climate towards the explosion of 1994, along with the complicitly and collusion of the "free world", particularly France, and 2) the way in which the Rwandan Hutu Power troops manipulated the well-meaning international aid community into shielding them from just retribution at the hands of their victems. In fact, the refugee camps under UN protection guaranteed further bloody conflict, as was seen in 1996. For those who think the genocide has nothing to do with us, think again.

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Summary: Rich with Human interest Stories
Review: Firstly I must say that Philip is the only western writer who managed to grabb the best picture of what happened in Rwanda. I only managed to read one of his stories from the Mail & Guardian Newspaper and it is like I have read the whole book. It is amazing that when you see Mr Ntaki Rutumana on tv and Photographs, he seem to be a good man but hearing what he did in Rwanda is amazing, especially when it comes from a Reverend. People were killed like chickens slaughtered for a christmas day. Philiph to me is really a good example and role model to all young journalists. I wish to like Philiph one day

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Summary: We Need to Know
Review: When I read this book I kept thinking what was I doing on this date? Where was I when this happened?, like the character Stingo, in "Sophie's Choice." My life and my little problems are so damned small in comparison. It's hard to believe that such horrors can repeatedly happen on such a small planet, or that some of us can be so priviledged and comfortable while others must endure hell here on earth. This book was well written and was so much more informative about the genocide than anything else I had encountered. I am so glad I read it, although at times I wanted to throw the book away and stop thinking about Rwanda. I read this book about a year ago and it still haunts me. Having read this and other material about Rwanda I am amazed with how much misinformation is out there and how little most Americans know about what happened there. I know I was just as naive before I read this book. The world needs to do more to prevent genocide from happening. We all need to open our eyes.

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Summary: It's not simply Man's Inhumanity to Man
Review: This is an excellent book on many levels. What stood out above all else, to my mind, was that Gourevitch shows how our kneejerk sympathy for the underdog can cause great injustice. Events the size of genocide are not merely the mutual spilling of blood by far away people. Given the complexities of life, there can still be a right side, and a wrong side.