We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families

by Philip Gourevitch

'I know few books, fiction or non-fiction, as compelling as Philip Gourevitch's account of the Rwandan genocide' Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm 'Like the greatest war reporters, Philip Gourevitch raises the human banner in hell's mouth ...This volume establishes him as the peer of Michael Herr, there is no limit to what we may expect from him' Robert Stone 'Magnificent, terrifying ...Gourevitch's account is factual, unemotional and utterly gut-wrenching ...The great achievement of his book is that it allows us to imagine this unimaginable crime ...and those who stood by, human beings all' Irish Times 'A sparkling jewel that shone no matter what angle you looked at it from' Amanda Foreman 'Gourevitch constructs a powerful indictment against international inaction ...In his meticulous journalistic reconstruction he drives home the point that this is a history like any other ...It is also a stark rebuttal of those who have tried to separate what happened in Nazi Germany and what happened in central Africa half a century later' Observer 'Philip Gourevitch has written the book which is the key to these dramatic and terrifying events ...Should be compulsory reading ...for all UN officials involved in peace-keeping operations and humanitarian aid, from the Secretary General on down' Guardian

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Africa, War, Politics, Rwanda, Journalism

356 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1998

About the author

Gourevitch was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to painter Jacqueline Gourevitch and philosophy professor Victor Gourevitch, a translator of Jean Jacques Rousseau. He and his brother Marc, a physician, spent most of their childhood in Middletown, Connecticut, where their father taught at Wesleyan University from 1967 to 1995. Gourevitch graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Gourevitch knew that he wanted to be a writer by the time he went to college. He attended Cornell University. He took a break for three years in order to concentrate fully on writing. He eventually graduated in 1986. In 1992 he received a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction from the Writing Program at Columbia University. Gourevitch went on to publish some short fiction in literary magazines, before turning to non-fiction.