Author Guide · Reportage
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In 1994, over about a hundred days, some 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda. A year later Philip Gourevitch began travelling there to understand how it had happened and how the country could go on. His book took its title from a letter Tutsi pastors wrote to their church leader, asking for help, the day before they were killed. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award and became one of the essential books on genocide. This guide covers all three of his books in order, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 3 books · Reportage · 1998–2008 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Philip Gourevitch has published three books: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (1998), about the Rwandan genocide; A Cold Case (2001), about a New York detective reopening a thirty-year-old murder; and Standard Operating Procedure (2008), written with the filmmaker Errol Morris, about the Abu Ghraib photographs.
Where to Start with Philip Gourevitch
If you want the famous one
→ We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (1998).
If you want true crime
→ A Cold Case (2001).
If you want Iraq
→ Standard Operating Procedure (2008).
All 3 Philip Gourevitch Books, in Order
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
The Rwandan genocide of 1994 and its aftermath, told through survivors, killers and officials, and the failure of the outside world to stop it.
A Cold Case
A New York investigator reopens a double murder from 1970 and tracks down the killer, three decades later.
Standard Operating Procedure
Written with Errol Morris, who made a documentary of the same name: the soldiers behind the photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and what the pictures did and did not show.
How Many Books Did Philip Gourevitch Write?
Three books between 1998 and 2008, one of them written with Errol Morris.
- Reportage — all three books. Read the entries →
In What Order to Read Philip Gourevitch
His books are very different from each other and can be read in any order.
A reading path
1. We Wish to Inform You... (1998)
2. Standard Operating Procedure (2008)
3. A Cold Case (2001)
Quick facts about Philip Gourevitch
- Born
- 1961, Philadelphia
- Works for
- The New Yorker, staff writer
- The Paris Review
- Editor, 2005–2010
- Prize
- National Book Critics Circle Award, for We Wish to Inform You...
- Books
- 3, from 1998 to 2008
How Philip Gourevitch Works: Listening After Atrocity
Gourevitch returned to Rwanda many times over several years, listening to survivors, perpetrators and politicians, and combining their testimony with his own reflections on how such violence becomes possible.
He is interested as much in aftermath as in events: how people live next to those who killed their families, and how memory and justice work.
Frequently asked questions about Philip Gourevitch's books
How many books has Philip Gourevitch written?
Philip Gourevitch has published three books: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (1998), A Cold Case (2001) and Standard Operating Procedure (2008, with Errol Morris).
What is We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families about?
It is an account of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and its aftermath, based on Gourevitch's reporting there. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Footnotes
Bibliography last verified 1 October 2026.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
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