MATRIX

By Lauren Groff

Matrix, a finalist for the National Book Award, was named the Best Book of the Year by the New York Times.  I invite you to join Lauren Groff, one of America’s most acclaimed young writers, as she transports us back to 12th-century England.  There she introduces us to her fictionalized version of Marie de France — in reality the first published poet in the French Language. Under Groff’s pen Marie becomes a remarkable 12th-century nun, the heroine of Matrix.  The word “matrix,” as applied in this context, originates from the Latin word for mother, often associated with the Virgin.

Groff’s Marie is a “bastardess sibling of the crown of England,” orphaned at age twelve following her mother’s death and cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine at the age of seventeen. Her “giant, bony body” deems her unfit for marriage, and she is sent to England to become the prioress of a dilapidated abbey, on the brink of starvation and teaming with disease.  Overwhelmed at first by her bleak fate, Marie summons up the inner strength that enables her not only to turn her own life around but also the course of the abbey.  The book unfolds to reveal the rich tableau of life in this 12th-century abbey.  Groff’s writing is riveting.  The book’s conclusion leaves one to ponder the true nature of its protagonist and is well worth the journey. 

Susan Barron