LAUREN GROFF: It was immensely freeing in some ways to be able to build a character like Marie, who left evidence of her life in her books but not really in the historical record. What was it like to create this character basically from scratch? NYLAH BURTON: We know Marie de France was a real person, but we know so little about her. Shondaland spoke with Groff about creating Marie de France from scratch, the richness of biblical narratives, and why some kinds of freedom can feel like “living death.” It’s surprisingly delicious to read fiction about a historical figure we know so little about - the unknown provides fertile ground for Groff’s expansive imagination to roam, creating a rich life for Marie as she grows into her role as mother to and leader of a group of women who found their autonomy and purpose away from the oppressive control of men. Matrix is a transcendently beautiful novel with sensuality, religious ecstasy, gender and power explorations, and a fair bit of tasteful gore. “She will send her manuscript as a blazing arrow toward her love, and when it strikes, it will set that cruel heart afire,” Groff writes in the book. It’s this longing that Groff imagines led Marie to write her Lais (which rhymes with “tales” and is perhaps named after the Irish word laid for song) to win Eleanor’s love.

Teenage Marie is tortured by her bleak surroundings, longing for her unrequited love, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of King Henry II and the queen of England from 1154 to 1189 (Eleanor was also the queen of France from 1137 to 1152). This is the world Groff builds in Matrix for her protagonist, Marie, who is sent away from the English royal court to a crumbling abbey in the countryside filled with sickly, hungry nuns.

Matrix marie de france