1
of
1
Imperfect Solidarities
Series: Critic's Essay Series
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 140 ratings, 27 reviews)
Brief Description
Can empathy deliver political change? Does art that elicits emotional identification with others take us where we need to go? In Imperfect Solidarities, writer and art historian Aruna D'Souza offers observations pulled from current events as well as contemporary art that suggest that a feeling of...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK
Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock
Sorry, we're currently out of stock of Imperfect Solidarities. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.
Latest News
A Court of Splintered Harmony: How to Get Your Copy on Release Day
A Court of Splintered Harmony is almost here, and we have some exciting news for...
Pick up a Graphic Novel for Halloween
Wanting something different for spooky season? Try a horror themed graphic novel! Lizzy has rounded...
The ACOTAR Countdown Is On, But We Need to Talk…
Last week, things started taking a dark turn. The excitement surrounding the release was suddenly...
Even More New Board Games Just Arrived!
It's been another busy week at Book Hero, with heaps of new board games and...
The Book Briefing 21/10/2026
Welcome back to another edition of 'The Book Briefing', your weekly round-up of all the...
See moreAruna D’Souza draws from current events and contemporary art to suggest that a feeling of understanding or closeness based on emotional attachment fails to generate solidarity.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
Can empathy deliver political change? Does art that elicits emotional identification with others take us where we need to go?
In Imperfect Solidarities, writer and art historian Aruna D'Souza offers observations pulled from current events as well as contemporary art that suggest that a feeling of understanding or closeness based on emotion is an imperfect ground for solidarity. Empathy—and its correlate, love—is a distraction from the hard work that needs to be done to achieve justice.
Rather, D'Souza contends, we need to imagine a form of political solidarity that is not based on empathy, but on the much more difficult obligation of care. When we can respect the unknowability of the other and still care for and with them, without translating ourselves into their terms, perhaps we will fare better at building political bridges.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9783982389486
Publisher: Floating Opera Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 03 March 2025
Country: Germany
Imprint: Floating Opera Press
Illustration: 8 color illustrations
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 120.0mm
Height: 170.0mm
Weight: 91g
Pages: 116
About the Author
Aruna D’Souza is a writer and critic based in New York. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times and 4Columns.org, where she is a member of the editorial advisory board. Her writing has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Bookforum, Frieze, Momus, and Art in America, among other places. Her book, Whitewalling: Art, Race, and Protest in 3 Acts (Badlands Unlimited), was named one of the best art books of 2018 by the New York Times. She is the recipient of the 2021 Rabkin Prize for art journalism and a 2019 Andy Warhol Foundation Art Writers Grant.
More from Politics & Current Affairs
View all-
In the Room
'Every Prime Minister needs someone who will challenge them - and that was you.' So said Jacinda Ardern to Andrew Campbell on his final day as her Chief Press Secretary. Now, for the first time, Campbell offers a revealing insider's account of one of New Zealand's most extraordinary political eras. Serving alongside Ardern for almost her entire time in office,...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
One Last Question, Prime Minister
From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament Barry Soper has spent close to five decades questioning New Zealand's prime ministers.From the imposing, larger-than-life characters of Rob Muldoon and David Lange, to the golden age of Helen Clark and John Key, and the post-Covid era of Jacinda Ardern and the 'Chrises', Soper's insight and nose for a...Paperback$2800Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseFacing Up to Our Future
New Zealand's traditional “she'll be right” optimism is no longer adequate to the challenges facing the country. Facing Up to Our Future: Challenges and Choices for New Zealand brings together 21 of the country's leading thinkers to confront the long-term pressures shaping the nation's next decades. Edited by Emeritus Professor Peter Davis, the collection ranges widely, covering issues as diverse as...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Signed Copy13% offUncomfortable Economics
New Zealand once ranked among the world’s most prosperous nations. Not any longer. Why has our economic performance lagged behind countries we once outpaced? And what will it take to reverse the decline? In Uncomfortable Economics, David Schnauer shows that New Zealand’s underperformance is not inevitable. It is the result of choices — cultural and political — that can be...Paperback$3300Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Regime Change
From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House and the first year of his second presidency. Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administration’s most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader into...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$4299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseA Different Kind of Power
#1 New Zealand bestseller #1 Amazon bestseller #2 Audible bestseller #3 New York Times bestseller #3 Sunday Times bestseller #4 Australian bestseller From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Ockham WinnerA Different Kind of Power
What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she commanded global respect for her empathetic leadership that put people first. This is the remarkable story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt made...Hardback$4799Elsewhere:$5999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseDirty Work
Twelve years after they were exposed and discredited in the book Dirty Politics, some of the most cynical people in New Zealand politics are back. The epitome is Jordan Williams, with his abysmal attitudes to women, morality-free fundraising as a lobbyist for the tobacco industry and – worst and most destructive in New Zealand’s recent history – him and his...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Suicidal Empathy
The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
23% off1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four
In the drab and oppressive world of 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell introduces us to Winston Smith, a man haunted by the omnipresent surveillance and control exercised by the Party and its enigmatic leader, Big Brother. Winston works diligently at the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to alter historical records to fit the ever-changing narrative dictated by the...Paperback$1000Usually:$1299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
22% offNew Release
Go Hard or Go Home
From the front bench to rock bottom: Go Hard or Go Home is Kiri Allan's fearless memoir of ambition, disruption and survival in NZ politics and beyond. Kiri Allan's six-year political career spanned some of the most challenging times in recent history. Events a government might encounter once in a generation stacked up: a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, destructive and deadly...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen explores how Republicans have abused power, how Democrats have refused to exercise power when they held it, and how progressives should wield power if they are fortunate enough to win a free and fair election in a post-Trump world. The Day After: How to Wield Power in...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Politics & Current Affairs lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listPolitics & Current Affairs
2026 Longlist for The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
Celebrating the best of non-fiction writing, here are all 13 books on the longlist for 2026.View the list -
![]()
![Lucky You're Tough]()
![]()
Dylan's listPolitics & Current Affairs
Reading Before Voting
As we head towards New Zealand's general election on 7 November 2026, here are some books that explore many of the issues...View the list
