‘Can you, or anyone else, honestly tell me that I have been involved in witchcraft?’

Aalborg 1620, the city of hate. A wax child tells the story of its lady, the noblewoman Christenze Kruckow, who, along with a group of women, is accused of witchcraft. Rumour has it that the devil has come to them in the shape of a tall headless man, that they can steal people's happiness, that they have performed unchristian acts resulting in illness and death. And once a rumour of witchcraft has taken hold, it's hard to shake.

THE WAX CHILD is a horror story about brutality and power, nature and magic, a portrait of fragile communities and a dizzying insight into the worldview that preceded the strict rationality of the modern world.

This is Olga Ravn's fourth novel. The story is based on a series of real witchcraft trials that took place in Nakkebolle on Funen and in Aalborg in the years 1595-1621. The book contains magical instructions and quotes from original sources such as letters, court documents, Scandinavian grimoires (book of spells) and ledgers.