Olga Ravn - The Wax Child (Penguin/Viking, 2025) ****

Danish author Olga Ravn is a master at re-inventing language and prose, as we already read in "The Employees". In "The Wax Child" her angle of approach are the thoughts by a was doll that was made by Danish noblewoman Christenze Krukow, who is real historical figure who was burned for withcraft in 1621. 

In the novel, she melted beeswax and made it look like a small human. She keeps it hidden under her arm, trying to make it come alive, she gave it eyes and ears that can watch and hear. After that, it is buried in the soil, yet its powers of observation have not diminished. It sees through time and space, offering the weird perspective as a narrator of the story itself. 

“And I was in the king’s ear, and I was in the king’s mouth, and I was in the king’s loose tooth and in the quicksilver of his liver, and did hear.”

The wax child, through magic, is connected to all living creatures, using their senses to observe 

"Whenever Karen visited the casemates to whisper with Dorte and the others, she would lay me down on the ground at the foot of the door; there, the earth would scuff me, mud would mottle me, an insect might briefly settle, a worm wriggle at my side, and as the weather grew warmer, fluff and seed would cling to my wax, and then perhaps again be taken by a wind, and spores danced in the air. But the best to talk to was a chaffinch that had made its nest in a tall tree in the castle yard, and though earth and spores had much to tell, it was the chaffinch that knew best what had happened to my mistress and her companions, and vividly, with great narrative skill, the bird passed on to me the following" 

The wax child sees how a group of women work together on a daily basis, need each other to protect themselves, and this bond, this solidarity is considered as a threat to the male world who can accuse them of witchcraft as they please, and later incarcerates and burns some of them. 

"There was Christenze and Maren. There was Dorte and Apelone. There was Mette, and someone called Elle, and Maren Pedersdatter and Margrethe Hjulmands, and the wife of Gunder Vognkarl, and there was Christen ­Knudsen's woman and an old wife from Vorde whose name was Ane or Maren, and a Mette from Klarup, Else from Mov, Bodil and Sidsel from Gudum. Maren entered with a candle in her hand and lay down upon the floor as if to give birth, and the others drew me out from under her skirts like I was a human child. And everyone laughed and sang and fell about each other, and Maren looked up at Christenze with that light in her eyes and Christenze had to kiss her. It is true that someone was meant to be stricken, that someone was meant to suffer. These fingernail parts, these strands of hair Maren had meticulously pressed into my wax foot. But first and foremost they wished tocommit to each other, first and foremost they wished to seal their association, to summon the golden servant, and now it was here, I took its place, and the women's hearts were up in their mouths, all of them opened their mouths and looked agitatedly around at each other, and in every mouth was s.een a lustrous fleshy heart, and every one did fill the room with its drumming; even I, who have no heart, felt as if my own was in my mouth, and I cannot describe the sense of joy it gave me; and the moment stretched into infinity, time dis­solved inside their circle, they took each other by the hand and began slowly to dance around me with their open heart-mouths. One after another they approached and spat into my face, and each then did swallow her heart, which slithered back into its proper place and was changed by the experience. And when Christenze's spit fell on my brow I nearly burst with arousal. The candles flickered and made it look like they were dancing upon a bonfire of shadows. They had initiated me with their spit, and they called me Elisabeth, for the fingernails and hair they had given into my foot besides their own were hers, I felt it immediately. " (p. 78)

 The contradictory thing about the novel is that it while it attacks the witch-hunts, it shows that supernatural forces are at work among groups of women, and available for their use. The magic is primarily to protect themselves rather than causing harm to others. 

"To win a trial, say these words as you tie a knot: I shall tie a knot so firm. I shall tie his tooth and tongue, his hand and foot, and innermost heart. I shall tie his tooth and tongue, his liver and lung. Yes, his speech and language too, and quite as firm as the Devil stands in Hell. My words shall grow like grass in rain. Sun and moons shall perish before my foe is proven right over me. I sow my words here on the meadow green. I wish him trouble and strife. He shall find them both and the same shall he know. In three mens name." (p. 101) 

Stylistically, the wax child speaks in an almost abstract, hypnotic, staccato style, pushed forward like breathing, like heart beats, rhythmic and musing at the same time, often also sounding like mad rantings. This requires some effort for the reader, yet it works a really beautiful effect as a reading experience. 

This will not be to everyone's taste, but it's more than worth checking out.