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‘An important and necessary book’ – Roman Krznaric

‘This urgent book gives us renewed hope’ – Natasha Carthew

The only way to truly tackle poverty? With empathy.

Poverty is bad for everyone – this is not news. It increases crime, burdens healthcare systems and raises taxpayers’ bills. With increased economic uncertainty making poverty a more probable prospect for many, fixing inequality has never been more urgent.

In this eye-opening and revelatory book, writer and researcher Keetie Roelen proposes a simple solution accessible to us all: empathy.

The Empathy Fix promises a radical rethink of poverty, taking the reader inside its lived experience, the latest efforts to combat it, and arming them with the information needed to enact lasting social change.

Through empathy, we can all contribute to a more equal society.

‘If you want to understand the reality of poverty, start by reading this book’ – Olivier De Schutter

‘A stellar piece of work from a seasoned researcher’ – Mary O’Hara

‘A unique, sensitively-crafted and much-needed book’ – Sarah P Corbett

Publisher Review

An important and necessary book exploring the chronic empathy deficit around global poverty, offering surprising and compelling solutions to one of the greatest injustices of our time. — Roman Krznaric The enormous achievement of this book is that it provides a lucid assessment of poverty, by connecting dry statistics to human faces and lived experiences… What emerges is a powerful picture showing the inventiveness of people living in poverty and their incredible resilience, but also how their efforts are hampered by povertyism – the abuse and negative stereotyping they confront on a daily basis. If you want to understand the reality of poverty, start by reading this book. — Olivier De Schutter Now more than ever The Empathy Fix needs to find its way into the hands of not just global policy makers, but anyone who thinks that poverty doesn’t exist or that there are no solutions to our very often secreted difficulties. This urgent book gives us renewed hope – hope served perfectly and respectfully through the refreshing lens of empathy and equality, a must read! — Natasha Carthew Keetie Roelen’s work on poverty has for many years been a key ‘go-to’ resource for those of us who write or campaign about the issue. The Empathy Fix is no exception. A stellar piece of work from a seasoned researcher that sheds fresh light on what has been a perennial problem. Significantly, Roelen does much more than assess the situation, she offers a new perspective on how we might address it – an empathy road map, if you will. This book is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the root cause and effects of poverty but, crucially, solutions. — Mary O’Hara Keetie Roelen has written a unique, sensitively-crafted and much-needed book that takes readers on a journey of understanding the complexities of the impact of poverty not just in terms of human needs but also addressing the often hidden or messier parts of poverty people avoid: attitudes, stigmas and unhealthy power dynamics within systems created to help people out of poverty. A vital book! — Sarah P Corbett