Set in 12th-century France, Matrix follows Marie de France, cast out of the royal court and sent to live in a poverty-stricken abbey. There, she transforms the convent into a thriving, autonomous community of women, wielding spiritual and political power in a male-dominated world. Groff reimagines history with lyrical prose, exploring themes of female agency, mysticism, faith, and queerness. Inspired by a real medieval poet, this is a visionary and feminist novel about creation, leadership, and devotion, both sacred and secular. Matrix is a powerful meditation on the lives women build when the world tries to shut them out.
An American author known for her lyrical and introspective novels and short stories that often explore themes of nature, motherhood, and the complexities of human relationships. Her acclaimed works, such as Fates and Furies and Matrix, are characterized by their beautiful prose, vivid imagery, and deep exploration of character and place. Groff's evocative writing has established her as a significant voice in contemporary literature.
by Leo Tolstoy
Acclaimed by many as the world's greatest novel, Anna Karenina provides a vast panorama of contemporary life in Russia and of humanity in general. In it Tolstoy uses his intense imaginative insight to create some of the most memorable characters in all of literature. Anna is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin and turns to Count Vronsky to fulfil her passionate nature - with tragic consequences. Levin is a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often expressing the author's own views and convictions.
This powerful story follows two childhood friends in Kabul and spans multiple decades of Afghan history. After witnessing a terrible event, their lives take dramatically different paths until a chance for redemption presents itself years later. Through personal drama and historical upheaval, the novel explores themes of loyalty, betrayal, and the possibility of atonement.
Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
Series: The Wolf Hall Trilogy (#1)
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?