An absolutely extraordinary book. I came to Matrix knowing nothing about it, except that I’d read and adored both Fates & Furies and Florida, but the first few pages made me wonder if my Kindle had downloaded the wrong file by accident. Lauren Groff’s normally associated with contemporary fiction, yet this book is set in 14th century France and England following seventeen-year-old Marie de France, an ungainly outcast whose blood connection with the throne sees her banished by Eleanor of Acquitaine to spend her life running a failing convent in a backwater.

Marie shuts the unfriendly world out, heartbroken by the cruel loss of her lovers at court, and over time, thanks to her furious ambition and childhood experiences with the powerful, confident women of her family – she turns the convent’s fortunes around, attracting novices from far and wide, and it soon seems there is nothing that these women cannot accomplish when freed from the expectations of society and physical burden of child-rearing. As Marie observes at one point early in her training, “women in this world are vulnerable: only reputation can keep them from being crushed” – so she builds a psychological fortress around her nuns in addition to the physical barrier of an impenetrable labyrinth, which helps to keeps the world at bay. But with success comes greedy eyes and their associated dangers: can the sisters reach too far, and can they remain an island forever? A magnificently adventurous tale of love – both spiritual and secular – passion, community and devotion that will leave you wondering at Lauren Groff’s stunning talent and creative vision, and where we might find a similar community to move to...

Featured in the September issue of Cambridge Edition Magazine – https://online.bright-publishing.com/view/409150483/27/ thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy!

This beautiful novel spans the life of a most unconventional Abbess. Lauren Groff's prose captures the mystical world the nuns inhabit. Light and the seasons and prayer are described as vividly as the violence that follows lust, ambition and jealousy. I cannot do it justice- only reading can do that!

A book about a woman who is sent by the queen to lead a struggling monastery with nuns. The book follows her life and some of the endurances.

Normally, I’d love this type of book. Unfortunately, I felt like the book required editing. It lacked flow.

I liked this in the early part but found it less and less compelling and less convincing as it went on. I struggled to finish it. But I am sure it will find many fans; just not me!

Loosely based on the life of twelfth-century abbess Marie de France, this is a richly written novel with the power of women at its heart. It spans Marie's entire life, dealing with the trials and tribulations she faces as she transforms her poverty-stricken abbey full of starving nuns into a vibrant and self-sufficient community, complete with an impressive labyrinth-like approach that prevents outsiders from getting in. The writing feels a little distant, as it covers the events of her whole life and so never really goes into much detail, so it was hard to really get involved. The writing is really lovely, though, and I really admired the wealth of female characters that populate to novel.

The lovelorn, clumsy, awkward bastard Marie, born of a long line of large, imposing female warriors, is banished from the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine to an impoverished abbey as its new prioress. She plods to her new abode in miserable weather, on a massive horse, to find a group of ill and dying nuns.
Marie decides to make the best of her situation, and over time transforms the abbey and the recalcitrant nuns to achieve great things, improving their situation and amassing wealth, whilst undergoing a personal transformation of her own.
The fact that Marie is a larger than life character, physically and personally, comes across very strongly in this book. She manages to bring out the best characteristics of each nun, even though some of them are antagonistic and difficult to live with. In fact, it led me to question her believability (is there such a word?), but then I thought, why not? History is filled with larger than life men, and the question 'where are the women?' always raises its head. Well, here's one of them, fictionally at least.

There are no men in this novel. At all. How refreshing. Marie is given free rein, and she makes the most of it. In an all female environment, the women flourish, regardless of their personalities and their physical attributes. They build, farm, improve, keep bees....they find solutions to all the issues they have to cope with, even their sexuality. Contentious issues are resolved, or not, and Marie herself has visions, and writes poetry and comes to terms with her life.
I found it interesting that there is a price to pay for progress, even in a female environment...whilst building the labyrinth, Groff makes reference to all the nature destroyed by Marie's ambitions, which otherwise would have been overlooked. This part of the novel has stayed with me, which strangely I remember the most.

This is a very good, beautifully written novel and I would highly recommend it. I was a Lauren Groff fan before I read this book, and remain so. A triumph!

I have enjoyed previous novels by Lauren Groff, so I was pleased to receive a copy of her latest work. This is a historical novel, which is very loosely based upon a real person, Marie de France, a poet who lived in England in the twelfth century. Nothing much is known about her life, but her writings certainly defied many Church teachings, and, in the same way, the central novel of this novel is certainly not a conformist.

Marie is the illegitimate half-sister of Queen Eleanor. Unlike the beautiful Eleanor, Marie is tall, ungainly, and lacks grace. Her earlier life had been spent with her mother and aunts, who hunted and fought and so she finds herself an uncomfortable presence at Court. Then life takes a turn for the worse, as Eleanor decides this odd half-sister has a role at a remote Abbey. Sickness rages, the sisters are poor and half-starved, the Abbey mis-managed and the atmosphere among the women argumentative and difficult.

This is the story of Marie’s rise from her initial unwillingness to accept her fate, to her creating success out of a situation which – at first – seems impossible. From having no vocation and only plotting to return to Court, she finds a way to cope with her loss of family, comfort and status. Of dealing with the Sub prioress Goda, who is sly, cruel and ambitious and whose hopes are dashed by Marie’s arrival.

Lauren Groff has a wonderful sense of place. You feel the deep, shattering cold, the discomfort, the sheer exhaustion of Marie’s early time at the Abbey, where life is ruled by prayer. Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Chapter, None, Vespers, Collation, Compline… She also writes well of an all-female community; the petty resentments, jealousies and desires. Overall, a well written novel and a good insight into the hardship of life faced by women in religious communities at that time. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I had no expectations when I started reading this book and knew nothing about it beyond it being historical fiction by Lauren Groff.
And it proved to be an utter joy to read the story of Marie and her life at the abbey. The lyricism of Lauren Groff’s writing is undeniable and sweeps you along as she tells this stunning tale of a young woman cast out from the royal court.
The cast of nuns she shares the abbey with are a joy and you cannot help but be caught up in their lives.

Marie is an orphaned 17 year old in 12th century France; she is sent to England and there it decided that she will become the new prioress of an abbey which is beset by disease and starvation. The novel follows Marie's life at the abbey and her journey to bring it back from the brink of collapse whilst following her ambition amidst the rules for women of the time.

I really enjoyed that the novel follows Marie from the age of seventeen and throughout her life; she is an enthralling character with her features that are not beautiful, her large stature and her ambition she is encaged in her small abbey but she feels larger than life and almost invincible. It was a slow burner of a novel but completely captivating.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Heinemann for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

I’ve loved the author’s other books but this one was possibly even better. Rich and detailed but so well-plotted. Masterful.

A fascinating story about a 12th century woman who breaks the mould of a patriarchal society and builds a world where women are self sufficient and wealthy. I felt it was based on a real person, but there is no evidence that Marie de France was an abbess who led this life, which is a shame - but I do hope there were women like her! Although I found the story fascinating, I felt it lost some of its impact through the rather vague writing style.

Lauren Groff's latest novel Matrix, out 23rd September, is based on the life of Marie de France, a French poet writing in the late twelfth century. Groff creates from the bare bones of what is known about Marie a former cruseder turned abbess, exiled from court and her beloved cousin Queen Eleanor. She turns the cold, forsaken convent into a flourishing, prosperous stronghold thanks to her many holy visions. Marie's love for Eleanor, her adolescent sexual relationship with her servant and her secret but in no way vilified desire for women humanises Marie and also adds a welcome dimension to the book that reminds us of the reality of gay people's lives throughout each moment and place in history.

Marie's ambition and intelligence in bettering the convent and her own conditions in this historical setting reminded me of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall sand Marie's drive certainly seems Cromwellian. We are at once shown her motivation to prove herself and win her Queen's admiration and approval, but also an undercurrent of the greed and pride that drives Marie and threatens the peace that she herself established in this community. After making sure that the inhabitants of the abbey and people they care for are looked after, Marie's goal seems to be to make the convent more and more cut off and more powerful than the landowners surrounding her. She shores up the convent's defences against the outside world, making them increasingly isolated
until it is a law and a country onto itself where she is the queen. Her detractors voice concerns that what she is doing is unnatural and against God and country, but more interestingly on several occasions this greed and subversion is linked to a pleasure in destruction, particularly against the land and the natural world around them in a quest for power that feels like an obvious but no less powerful allegory for global warming. Matrix is wonderfully immersive, creative and powerful. Despite my enjoying it so much, I don't think will be a book for everyone, but I do think it will find a really strong fan base with readers who are just as mad about it as I am.

Queer, feminist historical fiction?? What more could you ask for?!

I'm about half way through and I'm really loving this book! Lauren Groffs writing is phenomenal and so so captivating. I can't wait to finish this book and tell you all what i think about it!!

Matrix is a novel inspired by Marie de France. As is often the case with the focus in historical novels, little is known about her life. Banished as a bastard royal child due to being too ungainly and hard to marry, she at the tender age of 17 years, is sent to run a poverty stricken abbey that is barely managing to function.
It doesn’t dwell too much on the religious side of things, more on the characters, their unique skills, devotion to the cause; utter faith in Marie. These women endured amazing hardship, yet persevered and were incredibly self-sufficient.
It also through the story focused on leadership and the power of love. It was an easy read. Marie is incredibly likeable. Her reflections and insights are powerful. She moves from feeling anger at her treatment to channelling this is into love and devotion. To do good… Notwithstanding this, she is also formidable and as such meant outsiders thought twice about how they dealt with her. She used her royal links to her advantage and forged necessary relationships with useful links to benefit the abbey.
The writing is immersive, with lots of old archaic language used that added to its authenticity. The characterisation excellent. The nuns pleasingly very human and not severe in a way that they are often depicted. The story does stutter slightly toward the end, but the denouement is fitting and sensitive. It leaves quite a lasting impression and powerful imagery of life in the 12th Century.

The story of Marie de France, famous 12th century poet. When her royal patron sends her off to the abbey to live out her days as a nun, her heart breaks in two. Her love for Queen Eleanor is naive and ignorant but due to the mercy she showed her as a little girl, she worships her, adores her like an idol. Even when Eleanor throws her to the wolves of poverty and strips her of any value, still she fiercely loves her. Her love only dims when she makes the choice between dying a slow, dull death by starvation or living and taking action to save the Priory and its people from ruin, compartmentalising her love for the foolish Queen.

This is a story of womanhood, finding your place in society as a woman and the true meaning of love and quiet friendship.

I really enjoyed this book from Groff with the historical setting of the 12th century. It has strong female characters, great writing, complex plot. I definitely recommend it for historical fiction lovers.

Unfortunately this wasn't my cup of tea, I really enjoyed the first half but as the story went on I did lose interest, just a personal thing but I'm not sure the writing was 'exciting' enough for me. I do like historical fiction but I think this was set too long ago for me. I also went into the book completely unaware of the main character, which probably didn't help as I had no context at all. Saying all that I do think the writing is fantastic, so if you're a fan of the style or the character you would probably really enjoy it.

Lauren Groff's 'Matrix' tells the story of seventeen-year-old Marie, who is expelled from the royal court by Queen Eleanor to become the prioress of an abbey. Marie was conceived by royal rape, joined her mother and aunts on the Crusades, and maintained her mother's lands for two years after her death without anyone realising a child was in charge. Her presence in court is a challenge to Eleanor but despite this, Marie is besotted by her. In the cold Abbey, where the twenty nuns are starving to death and she is treated roughly due to her height and rumours about her family, it is Eleanor she longs for. However, quickly the warrior in Marie means that she turns the fortunes of the Abbey around and looks after the women in her care.

I loved the first half of this novel, but as it progressed I found myself becoming less and less interested. It felt like all of the conflict happened at the start. In the latter part of the story, everything Marie wanted happened. Her actions were justified by visions etc. The complexity of Marie's character and the contradictions started to become ironed out.

The problem may partly be due to the novel being based on Marie of France's life, limiting the extent to which Groff could stray from what is known about her. Nonetheless I kept longing for more conflict and potentially challenge to Marie's faith and visions. This novel is very well written and Marie appears to be a force to be reckoned with, but ultimately her religious conviction and ability to justify her decisions through it, became tiresome.

This was a strange book, filled with visions, magic, power and love. The writing is sublime and the subject matter is utterly intriguing with a main character who is charismatic as they come. Set in an abbey during the 12th Century the story revolves around Marie, second cousin to Henry II, who is banished to an impoverished abbey to live the life of a nun. Marie, however, is no ordinary girl, descended from a line of warrior women she takes on the role of Prioress and makes it her own. Filled with dreamlike and hypnotic prose, this is a novel about female power, about desire and also about devotion, both to the physical and the spiritual world. Different from the authors previous novels but none the worse for that.

I really do feel like this is purely on me for not enjoying this novel. While trying to venture out of my comfort zone into more historical fiction I found this novel written by an author that I have heard lots of positive things about, and yet I found myself not enjoying my reading experience. That however speaks more about me than about this book I think, and for the right target audience I do believe this could be a 5-star novel.