Matrix by Lauren Groff

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Matrix by Lauren Groff

Author: Lauren Groff

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION

“Thrilling and heartbreaking.” –Time Magazine

“ page-by-page pleasure as we soar with her.” –New York Times

One of our best American writers, Lauren Groff returns with her exhilarating first new novel since the groundbreaking Fates and Furies.

Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease.

At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. In this crucible, Marie steadily supplants her desire for family, for her homeland, for the passions of her youth with something new to her: devotion to her sisters, and a conviction in her own divine visions. Marie, born the last in a long line of women warriors and crusaders, is determined to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects. But in a world that is shifting and corroding in frightening ways, one that can never reconcile itself with her existence, will the sheer force of Marie’s vision be bulwark enough?

Equally alive to the sacred and the profane, Matrix gathers currents of violence, sensuality, and religious ecstasy in a mesmerizing portrait of consuming passion, aberrant faith, and a woman that history moves both through and around. Lauren Groff’s new novel, her first since Fates and Furies, is a defiant and timely exploration of the raw power of female creativity in a corrupted world.

[highlight color=”green”]Goodreads users review :[/highlight]

When I think I finally have a handle on the kind of writer Groff is she goes and writes a novel about a female warrior with royal blood turned nun (Marie de France) in the 12th century. And it’s fierce as hell. I loved this. Groff basically takes the plot of The Favourite but changes the setting to an abbey and the year to 1158. Women are and always have been a force and Groff seems keen to illustrate that in the most interesting of ways. The research is so well folded into the narrative. I love it when writers surprise me. I love it. Jaclyn                                                                                                     rated it: 5.0 from 5.0

This is just gorgeous. Luminous and earthy and strange and moving. It reminded me a little of The Ninth Hour, not just topically (nuns!) but also thematically – Groff explores human hungers, love, friendship, service and holiness in ways that reminded me very much of The Ninth Hour. So great. Emily                                                                                                      rated it: 5.0 from 5.0

Young Marie de France is sent away to an abbey in England. We follow the life of this reluctant nun as she transforms this poorly run and operated abbey into an almost magic place transformed and run exclusively by women. It’s thrilling that one of our most modern authors is able to tell this tale from 1100. Marie, through her intelligence, hard work and religious visions, is an amazing creation. James Beggarly                                                                                       rated it: 5.0 from 5.0