In an interview with Lit Hub, Lauren Groff talks about researching her latest novel, Matrix, whose central character is the medieval poet Marie de France. Because her subject lived so long ago, Groff had little to go on. “It was liberating that there was so little in the historical record about Marie de France,” she says. “I had immense latitude. I still wanted to hinge the character on something, though, so I went very carefully through the Lais and her Fables, pulled out every vivid detail I could find, then used those details to build a scaffolding for a life.”
