Sugar follows expertly crafted characters as they wade through grief, sexism, and the bitter judgement of the 1950s Deep South with warmth and heart. Sugar is a page-turning novel guaranteed to be looked back on as a timeless classic

Riveting...searing

This book is so engaging and beautiful and intriguing and satisfying that I could not put it down

McFadden works a kind of miracle - not only do her characters retain their appealing humanity; their story eclipses the bonds of history to offer continuous surprises . . . Beautiful and evocative

Sugar was a masterful debut, an electrifying and profoundly realized addition to African American women's literary fiction. And importantly, Sugar introduced us to the brilliant author, Bernice L. McFadden, who would bring forth The Book of Harlan, Gathering of Waters, Glorious, and Nowhere is a Place.

A literary explosion...McFadden reveals amazing talent

An earthy slice of life in a small Southern town... A novel of friendship and loss

Strong and folksy storytelling...think Zora Neale Hurston...Sugar speaks of what is real

A great book. I love it!

Fleet-footed and irrepressibly charming

Opens dazzling windows of wonder into multiple worlds. The patterns in Cheryl's tarot cards reflect time-bending truths about art and history

The garden of Cheryl's Destinies is wild, Rousseau-lush, magic-hour lit ... Sexton's flair comes in balancing the otherworldly with the very ordinary, acutely observed detail ... joyous and often very, very funny

The spring-loaded poems of Cheryl's Destinies foreground questions about art and authenticity, belief and make-believe, the inescapable presence of history and the contingent self in crisis ... many of the poems in Cheryl's Destinies vibrate not only forwards but backwards as Sexton continues to unlock the possibilities of poetic form.

Enchanting and intriguing, Matrix absorbs the reader into the medieval period without compelling them to depart entirely from the present

It's a bold, luminous tale that captivates from first to last.

A robust and pleasingly strange slice of historical fiction

Lauren Groff's Matrix is just marvellous; vivid and vibrant, it hums with the lives of those contained within the convent walls, as Marie becomes the ambitious and canny hub at the heart of this female utopia.

No doubt a mini-series beckons

Groff offers a world that is rapturous, rapacious, ecstatic, profane; a novel of seismic revelations.

Matrix explores the story of Marie de France, a young woman sent to languish in a struggling convent that she begins to transform through her own leadership. Both epic and intimate, this sweeping novel explores questions of female ambition, creativity and passion with electrifying prose and sparkling wit. A propulsive, captivating read.

Matrix is alive with lust and glory. In the incandescent Marie de France - visionary, cantankerous and uncowed by the constraints of her sex - Groff paints a portrait of sisterhood that shines out of the past and into the lives of women today.

Animated with sensual detail on every page and filled with lush, gripping storytelling that cuts to the bone, MATRIX resonates right into the present moment. I never thought I would find myself longing to be a medieval nun but Groff is a worker of wonders. This book is a ferocious joy

Lushly textured and uniquely vivid, Matrix settles itself on your mind like a dream or vision - it's absolutely stunning

What a book. Perfectly done. I adored it

It's as brightly lit as an illuminated manuscript and would make the most perfect Christmas present imaginable

Full of sharp sensory detail, it's balm and nourishment for brain, heart and soul

Matrix takes the mysterious life of the late 12th-century poet - known today for her romantic lais - and runs with it . . . Groff explores themes of domination, death and desire in compelling (if at times, stomach-turning) detail

However, like Groff's earlier novel, this becomes a vivid, immersive and at times wild account of female agency

In Lauren Groff's hands, the tale of a medieval nunnery is must-read fiction

A marvelously told story of devotion, desire and ambition in the heart of a female utopia

Matrix is another masterpiece from a writer whom few at this point can best

Through Marie, Groff explores how a society's religious and gendered constraints can be turned on their head to create a utopia

[A]n electric reimagining . . . feminist, sensual, magisterial, de France's saga is one of hardship and triumph, an unforgettable character whose far-seeing vision and devotion to the nuns in her community enable them to transcend what threatens to erase and silence them

Matrix focuses less on Marie the author and more on Marie the abbess - and if you think that doesn't sound like the obvious angle for a fun and engaging story, you underestimate the scope of Groff 's imagination and talent

In these incandescent pages, Groff reverently imagines her way into the life and lore of Marie de France . . . Woven from Groff's trademark ecstatic sentences and brimming with spiritual fervor, Matrix is a radiant work of imagination and accomplishment

Thrilling and heartbreaking, Groff crafts an electric work of historical fiction

A transportive and meditative tale that will swallow you up from the very start

Groff, a premier stylist . . . .continues to grow, taking on a medieval foremother's story in her latest novel. The voice she finds for Marie de France . . . .will hold readers fast as the exiled Angevin royal becomes abbess of a convent, leading her charges through historic upheavals

Feverishly exhilarating stuff

With her unparalleled gift for sumptuous, sublime prose, Groff paints an engrossing portrait of a woman who, despite living in a world bound by constraints, experiences a life rich with passion and creativity. Surrounded by a supportive sisterhood, Marie uses strength and ingenuity to subvert the oppression of the patriarchy

Utterly absorbing

Splendid with rich description and period vocabulary, this courageous and spin-tingling novel shows an incredible range for Groff (FLORIDA, 2018), and will envelop readers fully in Marie's world, interior and exterior, all senses lit up. It is both a complete departure and an easy-to-envision tale of faith, power, and temptation.

In this bildungsroman about the real-life 12th-century poet Marie de France, a teenage Marie is exiled to a blighted Benedictine nunnery, where she finds strength and power as a prioress

Powerful, sapphic historical novel . . . Richly realized with historical details that don't overwhelm

Readers will recognize her stunning prose and grand, mythic perspective. . . . in a tale that feels both ancient and urgent, as holy as it is deeply human

The pages are almost completely devoid of men - seen, but not heard - with Groff using poetic, melodic and yet fierce writing to breathe volume into themes of power, ambition and success from the perspective of women

[A] propulsive, enchanting, and emotionally charged read

A clever spin on the story of Marie de France

I loved this accomplished piece of storytelling. So much so, I added it to my Booker wish list at the last minute, a wish not fulfilled, of course

Matrix is a rich, beautifully written novel about ambition and desire, and also witchy separatist medieval nuns

Mesmerizing and inspiring

Medieval life can seem far from our modern grasp, but Groff vividly describes the daily workings of the convent, from prayers to practical chores. She has done her research and it shows in the rich details she provides of working the fields, preparing meals, governing novices . . . magical, a beautiful evocation of what women can achieve and what they can mean to each other

[A] feminist foray into a medieval nunnery that is stunning in its labyrinthine artistry and sensual tracing of life as lived during the era of the poet Marie de France and the legendary Eleanor of Aquitaine

Must-read

A[n] artful writer, Groff has no need for fantastic artifice to construct a world without men. She . . . gives us an extraordinary protagonist . . . Anyone who has read Groff's previous novels and stories knows that this author's greatest virtue is her economy of prose. A disciplined writer . . . If "Eleanor's best currency is story," that goes double for Groff . . . Groff's "Matrix" simultaneously transports us to a backward world that once was and the grim future that seems inevitable. And all this through the eyes of a group of extraordinary women who decline to live lives of quiet desperation

[A] transcendently beautiful novel with sensuality, religious ecstasy, gender and power explorations, and a fair bit of tasteful gore. It's surprisingly delicious to read fiction about a historical figure we know so little about

I'm on page 17 and now nothing else matters . . . Once you have this book in your hands I feel certain you too will be consumed

[D]reamy prose . . . At its heart, the book's message is simple: joy can exist in darkness

Richly imaginative

[A] relentless exhibition of Groff's freakish talent . . . an unforgettable book . . . ecstatic, refulgent, God-struck, heretical

[A] creative, intelligent work that will last

The real Marie de France may continue to elude historians but the speculative fiction in Matrix combine to produce an unfailingly absorbing novel

An uplifting novel in its own unique way, and up there with Groff's best work

Matrix forms an intensely focused character study, but also succeeds as a probing exploration of female power

A beautiful and beguiling novel that transports the listener utterly and completely to another world

Against a convincingly filthy and precarious medieval backdrop, Marie is a figure of dazzling complexity