'Magical and disturbing' Adam Thirlwell

A wild adventure... Ómarsdóttir's novel is kaleidoscopic; the more you look at it, the more you see.

One of the most original authors in contemporary Icelandic literature...known for subverting traditional binaries like fantasy and realism, feminine and masculine, good and evil, and the animal and the human.

One of [this country's] most respected authors.

A master of the unexpected.

Kristín is a singular author...she is in a league of her own.

Kristín does everything at once - enchants, terrifies, devastates and delights.

She approaches taboos with complete irreverence, as if they don't hinder her at all.

With enchanting style and perfect conviction Kristín leads the reader into a dreamworld that is so lifelike that we don't know whether we are in a bad dream or a terrifying nightmare.

A many-layered novel that immediately grips the reader... makes us think about what it is to be human and the borders that people invent to distinguish themselves from others and to trap themselves.

An examination of humanity and of language - man's most distinctive feature - and how it serves us in defining ourselves and the world around us.

One of America's most celebrated authors continues her exploration of what fiction has to offer with a further digression from the standard realist purview and into fantasy... a fascinating premise, and I'm excited to see the yarn Moshfegh is able to weave.

No one is quite who he first seems in the latest wicked tale from macabre master Moshfegh . . . Sculpting an eerily canny fabular world of contrasts and evil, cartoonish cruelty, in her signature way, Moshfegh conjures a grotesque, disturbing story of gross inequality and senseless strife.

A thrilling dissection of illusion and reality.

Lapvona is a sublime work in the truest sense - mighty, irrepressible and terrifying.

Like a twisted reworking of A Hundred Years of Solitude... readers will no doubt relish its icy intensity and Old Testament grimness.

Strange, subversive and utterly unique.

Weird, unsettling and exciting...Moshfegh writes like a dream - or perhaps a nightmare?

[A] strange, disturbingly funny faux-historical novel.

A brazen, mordantly comic and decidedly odd examination of corruption... proving to be one of the most provocative and divisive reads of the year.

Brace yourself for a daring, dizzying fable about corruption.

A strange, daring book.

An addictive read... a curious, unjudging journey into humanity's craters.

Lapvona is an interrogation of faith, greed, and abuse - yet Moshfegh's dark humour cackles right through it.

This unsettling read is unlike anything else.

[Lapvona] is unlike anything she's [Moshfegh] written before... a rollercoaster ride exploring the themes of poverty, religion and greed.

Moshfegh's novel is bitterly comic, compelling reading, ever-pulsing with perversity.

[A] wry, bewitching and slightly dark novel.

Moshfegh is one of the most original and astute young novelists working today.

The superabundantly talented...Moshfegh's sentences are piercing and vixenish... she is always a deep pleasure to read.

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