This is not an easy book to read. But Gourevitch takes a tragedy about which most of the world knows very little -- the genocide of Rwandan Tutsis in 1994 -- and he thoroughly explores it, and along the way he humanizes it. This is a story about genocide, about war and politics, yes, but moreover it's a story about the people who lived through the horror of genocide, and those who died. Gourevitch talks to anyone who will tell him their story, it seems: survivors of the genocide, military officials, humanitarian aid workers, politicians, and even accused and confessed murderers, and he tries to make sense of how such a large-scale monstrosity could occur, and how it could be so easily ignored by the rest of the world. He condemns the UN and Western nations rather harshly, but long before you reach the end of the book you are convinced that they deserve every ounce of condemnation he gives them, and more, for their failure to intercede in one of the most devastating human tragedies of the 20th century.

This is not a book that can (or should) be read quickly. It's frightening, and educational, and mind-boggling, and gripping, and infuriating, and most of all it's terribly sad. It's also a fascinating insight into a darker part of humanity -- not only those who committed the genocide, but those who, through inaction, allowed it to happen. It is important, it is well worth reading, and it is highly recommended.