Matrix (Groff novel)

2021 novel by Lauren Groff

Matrix

First edition cover

Author| Lauren Groff
Audio read by| Adjoa Andoh
Language| English
Genre| Historical novel
Set in| England in the 12th century
Publisher| Riverhead Books

Publication date

| September 7, 2021
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print (hardcover and paperback), e-book, audiobook
Pages| 272
ISBN| 978-1-59463-449-9 (First edition hardcover)
OCLC| 1224045534

Dewey Decimal

| 813/.6
LC Class| PS3607.R6344 M38 2021

Matrix is a historical novel by American author Lauren Groff, published by Riverhead Books on September 7, 2021.[1]

## Premise

[edit]

Groff's fourth novel, Matrix is about a "seventeen-year-old Marie de France... sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease."[1] Alex Preston, writing in The Observer, described it as "a strange and poetic piece of historical fiction set in a dreamlike abbey, the fictional biography of a 12th-century mystic."[2] Within the novel, Marie, whom Groff writes as a lesbian,[3] turns around the abbey's fortunes and treats it as a quasi-mystical female separatist "utopia".[4]

## Reception

[edit]

Matrix debuted at number eleven on The New York Times fiction best-seller list for the week ending September 11, 2021.[5] Publishers Weekly, in its starred review, praised Groff's "boldly original narrative" and her "transcendent prose and vividly described settings" for bringing to life "historic events, from the Crusades to the papal interdict of 1208." Publishers Weekly concluded, "Groff has outdone herself with an accomplishment as radiant as Marie's visions."[6] In its starred review, Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Groff's trademarkworthy sentences bring vivid buoyancy to a magisterial story."[7]

However, historians of medieval women were more critical of the novel, with a review in Nursing Clio critiquing the book's "clichés [which] make the medieval world of the novel feel both more artificial and more distant from the present than it might" and its "bleak and stagnant medievalisms".[8]

It was selected for The Washington Post's "10 Best Books of 2021" list.[9] Former United States President Barack Obama named Matrix one of his favorite books of 2021.[10]

## Awards

[edit]

On April 19, 2022, Matrix was awarded the Joyce Carol Oates Prize.[11] Matrix was shortlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction[12] and the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.[13] It was also a finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction.[14]

## See also

[edit]

* Hild (2013), a novel by Nicola Griffith, also featuring a tall heroic woman as protagonist, a fictionalisation of the early life of the historic abbess Hilda of Whitby. Groff's Matrix shares similarities with Hild, including strong women's communities, dynamic leadership by a powerful female figure and an association between lesbian sex and medieval dairy work.
* Agatha of Little Neon (2021), a nun-focused novel published around the same time as Matrix[15]

## References

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1. ^ a b "Matrix by Lauren Groff: 9781594634499". Penguin Random House. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
2. ^ Preston, Alex (September 27, 2021). "Matrix by Lauren Groff review – thrilling trip into the mystic". The Observer. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
3. ^ Lawton, Frank (September 25, 2021). "Thoroughly modern Marie: Matrix, by Lauren Groff, reviewed". The Spectator.
4. ^ Grady, Constance (October 15, 2021). "In Lauren Groff's Matrix, medieval nuns build a feminist utopia". Vox.
5. ^ "Combined Print & E-Book Fiction - Best Sellers - Books - Sept. 26, 2021". The New York Times.
6. ^ "Fiction Book Review: Matrix by Lauren Groff. Riverhead, $28 (272p) ISBN 978-1-59463-449-9". Publishers Weekly. June 2, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
7. ^ "Matrix by Lauren Groff". Kirkus Reviews. June 16, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
8. ^ Barnhouse, Lucy (December 9, 2021). "Matrix: Lauren Groff's Visions of the Medieval". Nursing Clio. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
9. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2021". The Washington Post. November 18, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
10. ^ Segarra, Edward (December 15, 2021). "Barack Obama shares his favorite books of 2021, from medieval fiction to 1960s crime thriller". USA Today. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
11. ^ Schaub, Michael (April 19, 2022). "Lauren Groff Wins the Joyce Carol Oates Prize". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
12. ^ "National Book Awards 2021 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. October 6, 2021. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
13. ^ "2022 Winners". American Library Association. October 17, 2021. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
14. ^ Lewis, L. D. (March 15, 2022). "2022 Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced". Lambda Literary. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
15. ^ "Why Nun Stories Are About to Become Your Next Pop-Culture Obsession". Time. September 2, 2021.

* v
* t
* e

Works by Lauren Groff

Novels|

* The Monsters of Templeton (2008)
* Arcadia (2012)
* Fates and Furies (2015)
* Matrix (2021)
* The Vaster Wilds (2023)

Short story collections|

* Delicate Edible Birds (2009)
* Florida (2018)

*[OCLC]: Online Computer Library Center number
*[LC Class]: Library of Congress Classification
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