I would venture to add that the less one knows of Marie de France and her writings, the easier it might be to fall into this book. I need to say that my 2-star rating is entirely subjective (what else would it be?) and that other readers liked this far more than me.

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. 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?Įqually 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. 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. 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. Lauren Groff returns with her exhilarating first new novel since the groundbreaking Fates and Furies.Ĭast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, 17-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.Īt first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters.

Matrix book lauren groff