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Alison Stewart, host of WNYC’s All Of It, continues her virtual book club series with author Lauren Groff.

In her latest novel MATRIX, Groff enters the medieval abbey in to tell an engrossing tale of female desire, passion, creativity, and power—bringing her “unbridled velocity and spirit” (San Francisco Chronicle) to illuminate a radical vitality thriving in a convent in the Dark Ages.

A propulsive page-turner animated by Groff’s characteristic, MATRIX follows the twelfth-century poet Marie de France, banished as a young girl from the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine to oversee an impoverished abbey in England. Through sentences as “luxuriantly sensuous” (The Seattle Times), and “beautiful and vigorously alert” (The New Yorker) as ever, this utopian sisterhood comes to vivid life.

We’ll stay on the sisterhood theme with our musical guests, The Staves. Unlike the characters in Groff’s novel, these sisters are literal siblings—not nuns—but the British folk group’s harmonies have been described as “heavenly” and their arrangements have been called “divine.” Earlier this year they released the album Good Woman. Bandmates Jessica and Camilla join us for an interview and performance.

How it Works

1. Get the book, reach out to a friend to join, and read along with Alison and Team All Of It
2. Follow @allofitwnyc on Instagram
   where you’ll find polls, questions, fun facts and pictures of other readers
3. Watch the live video stream here on this page as Alison talks with the author

Viewers are encouraged to submit their questions for the author on Twitter and Instagram.

All Of It teams up with the New York Public Library so that New Yorkers can access the book for free through the NYPL app.