Listen to a sample
The Wax Child
- Author
- Olga Ravn
- Narrator
- Freya Miller
- Publisher
- Penguin Books Ltd
- Publish Date
- 6 November 2025
- Run Time
- 4 hours 35 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
Not available in your country
We don't have the rights to sell this audiobook where you are. If it's already in your library you can still listen to it in My Books.
What to expect
A WATERSTONES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2026
It was a black night in the year 1620 when Christenze Krukow made the wax child, when she melted down beeswax and set it in the image of a small human. For days, she carried it tucked beneath her arm, shaping it with the warmth of her flesh, giving it life. She fashioned for it eyes and ears that cannot open, and yet – it watches and listens. Soon, it will begin 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.
'The Wax Child proves Olga Ravn’s ahead of the game. She's the strangest - and best - young novelist in Europe' Telegraph, The Greatest Books of 2025
'Something truly special' Sunday Times, Best Books of 2025
‘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
© Olga Ravn 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
Critics Review
-
The Wax Child proves Olga Ravn’s ahead of the game. She's the strangest - and best - young novelist in Europe
Telegraph
-
Something truly special. A wonderfully weird novel full of lines that will rattle around in your brain.
Sunday Times
-
Every word in The Wax Child feels spontaneous, every scene alive, as if Ravn and Aitken had lived and breathed its mysterious atmospheres in order to deliver them to us. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that this haunting, gripping and singular historical novel cast a spell on us.
The International Booker Prize 2026 judges
-
Olga Ravn is a master and an alchemist. There's nobody else doing quite what she does
Samantha Harvey
See more reviews See fewer reviews
-
I gulped The Wax Child down and dreamed wild dreams about it. Just brilliant.
Max Porter
-
An incantation that explores womanhood, motherhood and bodily autonomy. Martin Aitken’s mesmerising, exquisitely precise translation is, literally, breathtaking. To be read in one sitting, on a dark winter’s night
The Irish Times – Books of the year 2025
-
Gorgeously mercurial. The best historical fiction can turn the driest archival fact into revelation, and here is proof.
TLS
-
A subversive tapestry stitched together with poetry, beauty and violence
Financial Times
-
Addictive and unsettling
Claire-Louise Bennett
-
An instant classic that feels passed down from centuries ago and yet utterly unique, fresh, and modern. Another stunning, surreal journey from an author who seems to never disappoint
Jeff VanderMeer
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Olga Ravn
- Narrator
- Freya Miller
- Duration
- 4 hours 35 minutes
- Release Date
- 6 November 2025
- ISBN
- 9781405982931
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Penguin Books Ltd
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Horror, ghost stories and supernatural fiction, Historical fiction, Fiction in translation, Witchcraft / Witches
Synopsis
A WATERSTONES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2026It was a black night in the year 1620 when Christenze Krukow made the wax child, when she melted down beeswax and set it in the image of a small human. For days, she carried it tucked beneath her arm, shaping it with the warmth of her flesh, giving it life. She fashioned for it eyes and ears that cannot open, and yet – it watches and listens. Soon, it will begin 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.'The Wax Child proves Olga Ravn’s ahead of the game. She's the strangest - and best - young novelist in Europe' Telegraph, The Greatest Books of 2025'Something truly special' Sunday Times, Best Books of 2025‘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© Olga Ravn 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.