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KODAMA / HISTORY & TRUE CRIME 2026
History · True Crime · Psychological · Investigation

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

by Philip Gourevitch

A devastating, definitive investigative masterpiece on the 1994 Rwandan genocide, exploring how an entire nation plunged into horrific violence while the international community stood by.

Author Philip Gourevitch
Publication 1998
Country United States / Rwanda
Original Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Full Title We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
Type Investigative Journalism / Nonfiction
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Rwanda · 1994
KODAMA ARCHIVE HISTORY & TRUE CRIME
01
About the book

The anatomy of a modern genocide and moral failure.

In the spring of 1994, an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in Rwanda over the course of just one hundred days. The title of Philip Gourevitch's haunting book is taken directly from a letter written by a group of Tutsi pastors to their church president before they were murdered.

Through fearless reporting and extended travels across post-genocide Rwanda, Gourevitch investigates not only how ordinary neighbors turned into executioners through political manipulation, but also the catastrophic indifference and abandonment by the United Nations and Western superpowers.

Solemn East African landscape reflecting the tragic memory of the Rwandan genocide.
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A masterpiece of moral reporting that exposes the stark reality of mass violence and international betrayal.
KODAMA / EDITORIAL NOTE
The author 1961 — Present

Philip Gourevitch

Philip Gourevitch is an acclaimed American author, journalist, and former staff writer for The New Yorker. Known for his rigorous investigative reporting on international conflicts, human rights, and political crises.

His extensive coverage of Rwanda established him as one of the preeminent chroniclers of modern atrocities, combining literary grace with unrelenting moral clarity.

ABOUT PHILIP GOUREVITCH

Also the author of Standard Operating Procedure (co-authored with Errol Morris).

Archive

A few things that make the book even more intriguing.

01

Origin of the haunting title.

The book's title comes from an actual distress letter written by doomed pastors barricaded in a church, pleading for intervention that never arrived.

02
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Confronting perpetrators and survivors.

Gourevitch interviewed both traumatized survivors and imprisoned killers awaiting trial, exploring the chilling normality of evil and remorse.

03
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Critical acclaim and awards.

The book won numerous literary honors, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, and is universally regarded as a modern classic of journalism.

04
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A critique of international inaction.

Gourevitch exposes how Western powers deliberately avoided using the word 'genocide' to bypass legal obligations to intervene under international treaties.

On screen

Documentaries & Visual Legacy.

Gourevitch's reporting has heavily influenced historical documentaries and international forums examining the Rwandan genocide.

2004
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Ghosts of Rwanda (Frontline Documentary)

Acclaimed investigative documentary featuring prominent insights and historical analysis from Philip Gourevitch regarding the diplomatic failure in Rwanda.

Watch

Book Review & Analysis.

A focused video overview and literary review examining Philip Gourevitch's profound historical documentation of the Rwandan genocide.

BOOK REVIEW Philip Gourevitch · We Wish to Inform You · Book Review
Quiet memorial landscape under an open sky.
Legacy

A permanent monument to historical truth.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families stands as an indispensable moral text, ensuring that the tragedy of Rwanda is never forgotten and serving as an urgent indictment of global apathy.

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