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The Wall
The Wall
Jul 10, 2025 7:56 AM

Author:Marlen Haushofer,Shaun Whiteside

The Wall

When her cousin and wife fail to return from a walk, this story takes a sinister turn to a quest of survival

A woman takes a holiday in the Austrian mountains, spending a few days with her cousin and his wife in their hunting lodge. When the couple fails to return from a walk, the woman sets off to look for them. But her journey reaches a sinister and inexplicable dead end. She discovers only a transparent wall behind which there seems to be no life. Trapped alone behind the mysterious wall she begins the arduous work of survival.

This is at once a simple account of potatoes and beans, of hoping for a calf, of counting matches, of forgetting the taste of sugar and the use of one's name, and simultaneously a disturbing dissection of the place of human beings in the natural world.

**PERFECT FOR FANS OF THE YELLOW WALLPAPER, STATION ELEVEN AND THE MARTIAN**

VINTAGE EARTH is a collection of novels to transform our relationship with the natural world. Each one is a work of creative activism, a blast of fresh air, a seed from which change can grow. The books in this series reconnect us to the planet we inhabit - and must protect. Discover great writing on the most urgent story of our times.

Reviews

It's a novel that contrives to be, by turns, utopian and dystopian, an idyll and a nightmare... Every joint and sinew of the story is restless with a sense of threat

—— London Review of Books

Brilliant in its sustainment of dread, in its peeling away of old layers of reality to expose a raw way of seeing and feeling. Doris Lessing once remarked that only a woman could have written this novel, and it's true... I've read The Wall three times already and am nowhere near finished

—— Nicole Krauss

It makes you sick, because, if she wasn't a woman, everyone would be reading it, like Robinson Crusoe

—— Sheila Heti, author of 'Motherhood' and 'Pure Colour'

Totally gripping

—— Daniel Swift , Spectator, *Books of the Year*

An extraordinarily interesting writer, always underappreciated

—— Elfriede Jelinek

The Wall is a wonderful novel. It is not often that you can say only a woman could have written this book, but women in particular will understand the heroine's loving devotion to the details of making and keeping life, every day felt as a victory against everything that would like to undermine and destroy

—— Doris Lessing

What is the wall? An allusion to the Cold War? An allegory for the Berlin Wall? Yes. But it also serves as a metaphorical stand-in for so many restrictions. It creates a situation that allows the main character and the reader to examine our ontology and what we think makes us real

—— Kirkus Reviews (starred)

The Wall is speculative fiction of a distinctly existential sort, where the subject being speculated on is not what happened to the world, but what happens to reality when society is stripped away...Nothing resolves, yet the book is constantly resonating

—— Wall Street Journal

Brutal and absorbing... But The Wall is also a resonant and realistic account of a widowed, middle-aged woman, disenchanted and depressed with the sum of her days, who is presented with the opportunity to enact what has previously eluded her: a life of her own imagining. In this way, Haushofer's book is one of the most profoundly feminist works of the past century

—— The Atlantic

An audacious piece of storytelling, full of passion, wisdom and magic

—— Sarah Waters

How mesmerising can twelfth century nuns be, even in the hands of Lauren Groff? I had barely started it before I was bloody well blaspheming with delight. Matrix is a gorgeous, sensual, addictive read.

—— Sara Collins

Transcendent prose and vividly described settings bring to life historic events, from the Crusades to the papal interdict of 1208. Groff has outdone herself with an accomplishment as radiant as Marie's visions.

—— Publishers Weekly

From the moment you're introduced to Marie, a queer, fierce warrior woman riding across the countryside on her warhorse, you feel as though you've time-travelled back to the Middle Ages. Groff's prose is arresting and unforgettably visceral . . . It's impossible not to feel galvanised by Marie's resilience, independence and determination to make her mark in a world ruled by men. I'll be thinking about Matrix for a long time to come

—— Stylist, Novel of the autumn

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

—— iNews

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

—— Mail on Sunday

A robust and pleasingly strange slice of historical fiction

—— Times, Best Fiction Books of 2021

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.

—— Daily Mail

No doubt a mini-series beckons

—— Catholic Herald

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

—— Eley Williams

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.

—— Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half

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.

—— C Pam Zhang, author of Booker-longlisted How Much of These Hills is Gold

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

—— Madeline Miller

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

—— Sophie Mackintosh

What a book. Perfectly done. I adored it

—— Max Porter

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

—— Naomi Alderman

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

—— Guardian

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

—— Financial Times, Best Books of the Year

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

—— Sunday Times

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

—— Washington Post

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

—— Daily Mail

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

—— The Atlantic

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

—— The New Yorker

[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

—— Oprah Magazine

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

—— The Daily Telegraph

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

—— Esquire

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

—— TIME, Most Anticipated Book of the Fall

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

—— Newsweek

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

—— LA Times

Feverishly exhilarating stuff

—— Chicago Tribune

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

—— Atlanta Journal Constitution

Utterly absorbing

—— Vogue

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.

—— Booklist

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

—— Vanity Fair

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

—— BuzzFeed

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

—— Entertainment Weekly

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

—— Press Association

[A] propulsive, enchanting, and emotionally charged read

—— Washington Independent Review of Books

A clever spin on the story of Marie de France

—— Bustle

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

—— A Life In Books

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

—— Vox

Mesmerizing and inspiring

—— Newsday

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

—— NY Journal of Books

[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

—— Lit Hub

Must-read

—— HuffPost

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

—— Gainesville Sun

[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

—— Shondaland

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

—— Sarah Jessica Parker

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

—— Popsugar

Richly imaginative

—— AP

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

—— USA Today

[A] creative, intelligent work that will last

—— Boston Globe

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

—— TLS

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

—— iNews

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

—— Literary Review

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

—— Irish Examiner

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

—— The Times
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