1
of
1
Solo Viola
A Post-Exotic Novel
Series: Univocal
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 150 ratings, 40 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
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 Solo Viola. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Latest News
New Releases to add to your TBR this week (2nd September)
There's so much new this week to get excited about with so many amazing new...
Screen Time for Tamariki - the books you need!
Finding the task of navigating screen time and the digital world for children incredibly complex,...
Shirl's Road Trip Reads and Board Game Picks
I recently spent a couple of weeks road-tripping with whΔnau visiting Aotearoa from overseas showing...
The Story to Screen Report - 01/09/2026
Sacha has rounded up all the biggest Story to Screen news from the past week,...
The Book Briefing - September 1st
Welcome to this week's Book Briefing where we round up the news for the week!...
See more"In one of his first forays into post-exoticism, Antoine Volodine takes the reader into a fictional world where a variety of characters collide"--
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
A harrowing early novel by one of France's most unusual contemporary writers
At once humorous and horrifying, Solo Viola is one of Antoine Volodine's first forays into post-exoticism. He takes the reader into a fictional world where a variety of characters collide: three prisoners just released from jail, a band of circus performers, a string quartet, a writer, and a bird.
All are trying to survive in an absurd and hostile environment of authoritarian spectacle, at the mercy of a tyrannical buffoon, and seeking the strange counterbalance of hope in a viola player, whose stunning music just might save them all, if only for a moment.
Series: Univocal
View all-
Shamans and Robots
A profound exploration of the external influences that shape human consciousness, from healing rituals to digital devices. In this voyage through thousands of years of psychosomatic healing, distinguished anthropologist and sociologist Roger Bartra examines the placebo effect as a key to our understanding of human consciousness. Shamans and Robots demonstrates how biology and technology become intertwined within human culture by...Paperback$9000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
On Painting
Available for the first time in English: the complete and annotated transcripts of Deleuze's 1981 seminars on painting From 1970 until 1987, Gilles Deleuze held a weekly seminar at the Experimental University of Vincennes and, starting in 1980, at Saint-Denis. In the spring of 1981, he began a series of eight seminars on painting and its intersections with philosophy. The...Paperback$7800Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Utopia from Thomas More to Walter Benjamin
Utopia from Thomas More to Walter Benjamin poses a question. Not simply in the sense of a problem to be resolved and at the same time eliminated, but in the sense that, within the economy of the human condition, utopia, the aim of social alterity of all social otherness, is ceaselessly being reborn. It comes back to life despite all...PaperbackSold Out -
The Dance of the Arabian Babbler
A groundbreaking reflection on the process by which one arrives at an ethological theory How do humans study the complex worlds of animals without imposing their own societal and scientific gaze upon them? The biologist Amotz Zahavi stakes the controversial claim that Arabian babblers are said to raise themselves up each day to dance and tend to one another in...PaperbackSold Out -
Solo Viola
A harrowing early novel by one of France's most unusual contemporary writers At once humorous and horrifying, Solo Viola is one of Antoine Volodine's first forays into post-exoticism. He takes the reader into a fictional world where a variety of characters collide: three prisoners just released from jail, a band of circus performers, a string quartet, a writer, and a...PaperbackSold Out -
The Tomb of the Artisan God
The Tomb of the Artisan God provides a radical rereading of Timaeus, Plato's metaphysical text on time, eternity, and the relationship between soul and body. Now available in English with a new preface by Serge Margel, this engagement with Platonic thought proceeds from two questions that span the history of philosophy: What is time? What is the body?PaperbackSold Out -
Kree
A warrior struggles through an apocalyptic landscape and the world after death Kree has been raised as a fearless fighter in a ravaged world: post-apocalyptic, post-human, the population decimated by wars, and civilisation long since collapsed. After her attempt to avenge the death of her dog, Loka, goes horribly wrong, Kree finds herself lost in a world after death and...PaperbackSold Out -
Before the Law
How to judge Jean-Francois Lyotard? It is from this initial question that one of France's most heralded philosophers of the twentieth century begins his essay on the origin of the law, of judgment, and the work of his colleague Jean-Francois Lyotard. If Jacques Derrida begins with the term prejuges, it is in part because of its impossibility to be rendered...PaperbackSold Out -
African Meditations
An influential thinker's fascinating reflections and meditations on reacclimating to his native Senegal as a young academic after years of study abroad. The call to morning prayer. A group run at daybreak along the Corniche in Dakar. A young woman shedding tears on a beach as her friends take a boat to Europe. In African Meditations, paths to enlightenment collide...PaperbackSold Out -
Cosmic Pessimism
βWe're doomed.β So begins the work of the philosopher whose unabashed and aphoristic indictments of the human condition have been cropping up recently in popular culture. Today we find ourselves in an increasingly inhospitable world that is, at the same time, starkly indifferent to our species-specific hopes, desires, and disappointments. In the Anthropocene, pessimism is felt everywhere but rarely given...PaperbackSold Out -
Imagination and Invention
A radical rethinking of the theory and the experience of mental images Here, in English translation for the first time, is Gilbert Simondon's fundamental reconception of the mental image and the theory of imagination and invention. Drawing on a vast range of mid-twentieth-century theoretical resourcesβfrom experimental psychology, cybernetics, and ethology to the phenomenological reflections of Sartre and Merleau-PontyβImagination and Invention...PaperbackSold Out -
On the Wandering Paths
A walking journey through France's vast interior becomes a meditation on both personal recovery and the role of history in the presentβmore than 425,000 copies sold in France. After a free-climbing accident lands him in a coma and a hospital for four months, the French writer Sylvain Tesson makes a promise to himself: if he's ever able to walk again,...PaperbackSold Out
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Solo Viola by Antoine Volodine is praised for its compelling examination of fascism through a fantastical lens, offering a powerful commentary relevant to contemporary issues. The book is described as haunting and elegiac, blending whimsy with earnest reflections on political danger. Critics appreciate its unique vision of performers and prisoners under an authoritarian regime, noting the work's political and fantastical intertwining. The novel is recognised for its smooth translation and as a part of Volodine's broader post-exotic literary project.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781517911195
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 11 May 2021
Country: United States
Imprint: University of Minnesota Press
Contributors:
- Translated by Lia Swope Mitchell
Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 25.0mm
Width: 137.0mm
Height: 203.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 112
About the Author
Antoine Volodine has written more than forty novels, using various heteronyms in his ongoing post-exoticism project. Other works in translation include Radiant Terminus, We Monks and Soldiers by Lutz Bassman, and In the Time of the Blue Ball by Manuela Drager.
Lia Swope Mitchell holds a PhD in French from the University of Minnesota. Her translations include Survival of the Fireflies by Georges Didi-Huberman (Minnesota, 2018).
Lionel Ruffel teaches comparative literature and creation litteraire at Universite Paris 8 (Vincennes-Saint-Denis). His most recent works include Brouhaha: Worlds of the Contemporary (Univocal/Minnesota, 2017).
Also by Antoine Volodine
View all-
Post Exoticism in Ten Lessons, Lesson Eleven
Like with Antoine Volodine's other works, Post-Exoticism in Ten Lessons, Lesson Eleven takes place in a corrupted future where a small group of radical writersβthose who practice 'post-exoticism'βhave been jailed by those in power and are slowly dying off. But before Lutz Bassmann, the last post-exoticist writer, passes away, a couple of journalists will try and pry out all the...Paperback$4000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks
More from General Fiction
View all-
The Wedding People
'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Buy to WinNew ReleaseCarl's Doomsday Scenario
Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl seriesβnow with bonus material exclusive to the print edition. Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever feline...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Buy to WinDungeon Crawler Carl
The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragonsβ¦ Raeveβs thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor β a staunch beacon from a past sheβs yet to face. With Rekkβs blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...Hardback$5999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...Set$12400Elsewhere:$15500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseBig Little Truths
Parenting teens is not for the faint of heart but Madeline, Jane and Celeste have been through worse. It's been a decade since the school trivia night that changed their lives forever and now they're living blissfully ordinary suburban lives. But when an anonymous grisly package arrives at the local high school, and a man in a green Volvo is...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Goal
Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...Paperback$2499Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Buy to Win17% offProject Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...Paperback$2000Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseOn Mystic Lake
One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...Paperback$3100Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings Boxed Set
Embark on a journey through Middle-earth with J.R.R. Tolkien's timeless masterpieces, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. These enthralling tales recount the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, a modest hobbit whose life is turned upside down when he unwittingly becomes entwined in a perilous quest involving dragons, wizards, and the fate of the world. Alongside iconic characters such as...Box Set$7199Elsewhere:$8999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseA Forsaken Prophecy
In a world of high-class magic and gangster grit, a star-crossed couple must decide where their loyalties lie in the sizzling romantasy follow-up to BookTok star Stacey McEwan's New York Times bestseller A Forbidden Alchemy. In Belavere Trench, the Artisans and the Craftsmen are at war. Patrick, the last Alchemist, and Nina, the worldβs only known earth Charmer, have been...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Whistler
FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING, PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF The Dutch House AND Tom Lake 'One of the most beloved authors of her generation'Sunday Times When Daphne notices an older gentleman following her around the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, she doesnβt expect it to be Eddie β her former stepfather. Married to her mother for a short time when...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3899Unit 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.
General Fiction lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Fiction about Fathers
Here are some incredible stories that explore various angles of fatherhood and father figures in the most poignant and wonderful ways. Featuring...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
What to read now you've watched The Odyssey
Contemporary fiction, classical non-fiction, feminist retellings, and inspired stories that would make for an interesting read now that you're obsessed with The...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Kevin's listGeneral Fiction
The Odyssey & Trojan War Classics (and Retellings)
Long before Christopher Nolan turned it into a blockbuster in the summer of 2026, The Odyssey was the original epic. After a...View the list -
![Tsubaki Stationery Store]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Have You Tried ... Healing Fiction
Healing Fiction is a relatively new genre still finding it's place, and yet people are reaching for it without realizing, desperate for...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Lizzy's Favourite Picks for Winter Reading
These are the books that Lizzy loves to read in Winter, or that feel like Winter. A combination of fiction, some non-fiction,...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Favourite Books of 2026
The first half of 2026 has been packed with brilliant books, making it hard to choose favourites but here are a few...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Books to Escape a Reading Slump
A reading slump can be a frustrating feeling and hard to break out of, but we've gathered together a list of crowd...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![Star Shipped]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Lizzy's Pride Fiction Picks!
June marks Global Pride Month so in case you're looking for your next great fiction read, here's a list of some of...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Readersβ Top 100 Novels of All Time - from The Guardian
There was some controversy when The Guardian released their critics and authors list of the top 100 novels of all time, but...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Hannah's listGeneral Fiction
Gothic Reads for Dark Nights
With the advent of movie adaptations like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, it looks like pop culture is seeing a revival of the...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Top 10 NZ Fiction Reads
We are spoilt for choice in Aotearoa with so many amazing authors as well as more up and coming authors being published....View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Top 10 Most Recommended Books
These are my Top 10 books that I always recommend to my friends and whΔnau when they ask for recommendations for getting...View the list
