open, and yet - it watches and listens. It looks on as Christenze is haunted by rumour, it hears what the people whisper. It sees how, in the candlelight, she gazes with love at her friends, and hears the things they say in the shadows. It knows pine forest, misty fjord and the crackle of the burning pyre. It observes the violence in men's eyes and the cruelty of their laws. In time, it begins to understand that once a suspicion of witchcraft has taken hold, it can prove impossible to shake ... Based on an infamous seventeenth century Danish witch trial, The Wax Child is the extraordinary new novel from Olga Ravn, one of the most acclaimed and original writers at work today: a mesmerising, frightening vision of a time when witches and magic were as real to the human mind as soil and seawater. 'Olga Ravn is a master and an alchemist. There's nobody else doing quite what she does.' - Samantha Harvey. 'I gulped The Wax Child down and dreamed wild dreams about it. Just brilliant.' - Max Porter. 'Addictive and unsettling.' - Claire-Louise Bennett. 'An instant classic.' - Jeff VanderMeer.