It is always a delight to read anything by Lauren Groff, but be aware that Matrix is a marked contrast to her prior works. Similar to Ishiguro or David Mitchell, it is testament to Groff's abilities that she can write as successfully about an abbey in twelfth-century England — in Matrix — as she can about contemporary New York. Groff's skill is to immerse the reader fully in the environment she has created, and also to have the reader rooting fully for the heroine. Matrix concerns itself with the banishment of Marie de France (a seventeen-year-old bastardess) from the Royal Court to an abbey. Against the odds she builds it up to be a successful franchise. Sure, this is heartening, but Matrix has a more subtle agenda too — it is about the overturning of preconceived ideas, especially vis-à-vis women. Marie is strong, powerful and resourceful — traits often ascribed to men. In the abbey she and her fellow inmates derive pleasure from female sexual activities; again, perhaps not what one might expect. There is joy in seeing the revered (or supposedly revered) normalised, and Groff describes all with panache. 9 out of 10.
By Lauren Groff