When the US government failed New Orleans in 2005, author Scott Crow headed into a political storm, co-founding a relief effort known as the Common Ground Collective. In the absence of state leadership, the unusual volunteer organisation based on solidarity, not charity, built medical clinics and set up food distribution. Crow’s vivid memoir maps the intertwining of his radical experience and ideas with the brutal reality of Katrina in a story of resisting indifference, inviting the reader to learn from the mistakes of recent history.