The International Library Presents Olga Ravn on ‘The Wax Child’ with Audrey Wollen

Join The Center for Fiction for an evening with Olga Ravn, the acclaimed author of Booker Prize finalist The Employees and My Work, as she introduces her haunting new novel, The Wax Child, translated by Martin Aitken.

Set amid the witchcraft trials of seventeenth-century Denmark, The Wax Child follows Christenze Kruckow, an unmarried noblewoman accused of sorcery, and the women who share her fate. Their alleged crimes—stealing happiness, consorting with a headless Devil, and wielding un-Christian powers—place them in peril of the stake. Narrated by a wax doll crafted by Christenze herself, The Wax Child is a chilling meditation on fear, power, and the brutal mechanisms that govern communities.

Drawing from court records, spells, letters, and Scandinavian grimoires, Ravn blends meticulous research with genre-bending experimentation, building a collage-like narrative that is as unsettling as it is mesmerizing. She will be joined in conversation by artist and essayist ​​Audrey Wollen for a conversation about The Wax Child, its source material, and the enduring allure of stories that illuminate the darkest corners of our past and present.