The Wax Child
Ravn, Olga
ISBN 10: 0811238830 ISBN 13: 9780811238830
Published by New Directions, 2025
Used
Hardcover
From
World of Books (was SecondSale), Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since December 20, 2007
This specific item is no longer available.
About this Item
Description:
Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00106698160
Synopsis:
An astounding, haunting tale of accused witches―a book of sorcery itself―from the celebrated author of The Employees and My Work
LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2026
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NBCC GREGG BARRIOS BOOK IN TRANSLATION PRIZE
In seventeenth-century Denmark, Christenze Kruckow, an unmarried noblewoman, is accused of witchcraft. She and several other women are rumored to be possessed by the Devil, who has come to them in the form of a tall headless man who gives them dark powers: they can steal people's happiness, they have performed unchristian acts, and they can cause pestilence or death. They are all in danger of the stake.
The Wax Child, narrated by a wax doll created by Christenze Kruckow, is an unsettling horror story about brutality and power, nature and witchcraft, set in the fragile communities of premodern Europe.
Deeply researched and steeped in visceral, atmospheric detail, The Wax Child is based on a series of real witchcraft trials that took place in Northern Jutland in the seventeenth century. Full of lush storytelling and alarmingly rich imagination, Olga Ravn also weaves in quotes from original sources such as letters, magical spells and manuals, court documents, and Scandinavian grimoires.
About the Authors:
Olga Ravn (born 1986) is a Danish novelist and poet. In collaboration with Danish publisher Gyldendal she edited a selection of Tove Ditlevsen’s texts and books that relaunched Ditlevsen’s readership worldwide. Her novel The Employees was on the shortlist for the Booker Prize in 2021, and The Wax Child was on the longlist for the Booker International Prize and the shortlist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Translation in 2026.
Martin Aitken has translated numerous novels from Danish and Norwegian, including works by Karl Ove Knausgaard, Peter Høeg, Ida Jessen, and Kim Leine. He won the PEN Translation Prize for his translation of Hanne Ørstavik’s Love.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Wax Child
Publisher: New Directions
Publication Date: 2025
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good