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Published: 01/07/2022
A kaleidoscopic tale of devotion, ecstasy and divine visions from the author of Fates and Furies, Matrix traces the path of a 17-year-old cast out from the French court as she becomes the prioress of a penurious English convent.
Waterstones Exclusive Edition with exclusive short story Such Small Islands
A Standard Edition is available here
Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for July 2022
Meet the indomitable Marie de France.
Born from a long line of female warriors and crusaders, yet too coarse, too wild, too rough-hewn for courtly life, Marie de France is cast from the royal court. Woefully, she is sent to the muddy fields of Angleterre to take up her new duty as the prioress of an impoverished abbey.
The abbey is a dreadful place: its inhabitants are on the brink of starvation, beset by disease, stoic and stern, yet plagued with an unholy tendency to gossip. Marie cannot help but pine for the decadence and comfort of France; her secret lover Cecily, her queen Eleanor, and the very court that had spited her.
Yet Marie soon realises that, though she may be tied to a life of duty, she wields more power than she could have imagined. With the fearlessness that has always set her apart, she inspires her new sisterhood to awaken their spirits and finally claim what is theirs.A dazzling work of literature, Matrix gathers currents of violence, sensuality and ecstasy in a mesmerising portrait of consuming passion and womanhood.
Publisher: Cornerstone
ISBN: 2928377100513
Number of pages: 272
Weight: 200 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 15 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Visionary leader, queer lover, 12th-century writer... the life of Marie de France is triumphantly reimagined in an assertively modern novel about female ambition and creativity... a highly distinctive novel of great vigour and boldness. From mystical visions that may or may not be divine, to the earthy business of abbey pigs, diseases and account books, Groff does it all with purpose and panache' - Guardian
'Groff's writing is muscular and precise, her themes wildly resonant. Women are dismissed and contained, subject to misogynist attacks and abuse, but gain power collectively - "alone, together". Shockingly, this message is as poignant today as it was, perhaps, 800 years ago' - Sunday Times
'A dazzlingly clever tale... gorgeously precise prose, always elegantly weighted and perfectly economical' - The Times
'Pitch-perfect' - Telegraph
'This is a remarkable novel: unusual, profound, transcendental' - Evening Standard
'It's a breathtaking novel' - Financial Times
'A thrillingly vivid, adventurous story about women and power that will blow readers' minds. Left me gasping' - Emma Donoghue
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“A slice of life in the Middle Ages.”
An illegitimate child of royal blood Marie of France was banished from the royal court and sent to live as a prioress in a poverty stricken abbey in England. Groff’s detail and research supplements a perfect... More
“A multi-layered historical fiction”
Matrix is a novel inspired by Marie de France, considered to be the first woman to write poetry in French, but a woman about whose life very little is known. Even her accurate identity is debatable. Here, we read the... More
“A moving and deeply thought provoking book”
There is an almost ethereal quality in the writing here - it draws the reader into almost a dream world peopled with finely drawn characters and settings, and a gently fluid plot, which all will the reader to... More
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