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

Stories from Rwanda

By: Philip Gourevitch

Narrated by: Philip Gourevitch

This program is read by the author.

*Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award*

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families is an unforgettable firsthand account of a people's response to genocide and what it tells us about humanity.

This remarkable audiobook chronicles what has happened in Rwanda and neighboring states since 1994, when the Rwandan government called on everyone in the Hutu majority to murder everyone in the Tutsi minority. Though the killing was low-tech--largely by machete--it was carried out at shocking speed: some 800,000 people were exterminated in a hundred days. A Tutsi pastor, in a letter to his church president, a Hutu, used the chilling phrase that gives Philip Gourevitch his title.

With keen dramatic intensity, Gourevitch frames the genesis and horror of Rwanda's "genocidal logic" in the anguish of its aftermath: the mass displacements, the temptations of revenge and the quest for justice, the impossibly crowded prisons and refugee camps. Through intimate portraits of Rwandans in all walks of life, he focuses on the psychological and political challenges of survival and on how the new leaders of postcolonial Africa went to war in the Congo when resurgent genocidal forces threatened to overrun central Africa.

Can a country composed largely of perpetrators and victims create a cohesive national society? This moving contribution to the literature of witness tells us much about the struggle everywhere to forge sane, habitable political orders, and about the stubbornness of the human spirit in a world of extremity.

Critic reviews

“[It is the] sobering voice of witness that Gourevitch has vividly captured in his work.” —Wole Soyinka, The New York Times Book Review

“[Gourevitch] has the mind of a scholar along with the observative capacity of a good novelist, and he writes like an angel. This volume establishes him as the peer of Michael Herr, Ryszard Kapuscinski, and Tobias Wolff. I think there is no limit to what we may expect from him.” —Robert Stone

“A sobering, revealing, and deeply thoughtful chronicle.” —The Boston Globe

“The most important book I have read in many years . . . [Gourevitch] examines [the genocidal war in Rwanda] with humility, anger, grief and a remarkable level of both political and moral intelligence.” —Susie Linfield, Los Angeles Times

“Shocking and important . . . clear and balanced . . . the voice in this book is meticulous and humane.” —Michael Pearson, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Astonishing . . . [Gourevitch] is masterful at placing the unspeakability of mass murder into actual people's mouths and inhabiting it in actual people's stories.” —Mark Gevisser, Newsday

“Unsettlingly beautiful . . . brilliant . . . this is a staggeringly good book . . . [It] should be on bookshelves forever.” —Tom Engelhardt, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Winner of
The Los Angeles Times Book Prize
The George K. Polk Award for Foreign Reporting
The Helen Bernstein Book Award
The Overseas Press Club Cornelius Ryan Best Book Award
The PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction

Comprehensive book of Rwanda’s history

I enjoyed listening to WWTIYTTWWBKWOF because I wanted to know more about Rwandan culture and as a supplement of what I already know. The book is detailed, riveting and info graphic.
The author’s voice and tones were appropriate throughout this book and I also commend him on his bravery for having traveled back and forth to and from Rwanda during those fragile years post their genocide. I learned a descent amount and have more intelligence about Rwandans and their vultures and their governments roles... it still pangs me that a France plus other western nations and organizations were/ still are assisting the perpetrators of the genocide and the other slaughtering that took place before or after the 94’ Genocide.

We have to understand the tragedies of the past to prevent them from happening in the future. Case and point Bosnia, America’s Chattel Slavery, ...

A must read!

Powerful and moving commentary on people and influence. A reminder to stand for what is right.

Essential for understanding contemporary Rwanda

Having just returned from a lengthy stay in Rwanda, during which I learned a great deal about the 1994 genocide, it’s precursors and its aftermath, this book was recommended to me by several of my Rwandan friends. Read beautifully by the author, full of detail, it has given me a more nuanced and detailed understanding.

Unimaginable

Philip Gourevitch has written a most remarkable book, award worthy in every way. The story of the Rwandan genocide is so shocking it's nearly impossible to take it in. Processing the horror isn't possible. He breaks it down, and with such intimate precision, takes the reader there. But it's still so shocking as to not seem real. It's as horrifying as any Holocaust rendition. And yet it's not at the forefront of any discussion on genocide.

Gourevitch gives no one a pass, no government or any body. Truly it's a very unbiased work. He sticks to the genocide and rarely if every veers off course. His passion is palpable. What an astounding work.

Well written and researched story

Half the book was about the genocide. What is more important is tye second half of book, which is the aftermath of what happened in surrounding countries rwandans dealt with each other after the genocide.