The Wax Child

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 comes to them as a tall headless man and gives them dark powers: they steal happiness, perform unchristian acts, and cause pestilence or even death. The women are all in danger of the stake.

Narrated by a wax doll created by Kruckow, the novel is an unsettling horror story about brutality, friendship, power, nature, and witchcraft, set in the fragile communities of premodern Europe. Based on a series of real witchcraft trials that took place in northern Jutland, The Wax Child is layered with rich atmospheric details and quotes from original sources, such as letters, magic spells, court documents, and Scandinavian grimoires.