You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Viking scoops Olga Ravn's The Wax Child in seven-way auction
Viking has scooped the rights to International Booker shortlisted author Olga Ravn’s new novel The Wax Child in a seven-way auction.
Edward Kirke, editor at Viking, secured the rights from Laurence Laluyaux at Rogers, Coleridge and White (RCW). Kirke also acquired UK & Commonwealth rights to an earlier work by Ravn, The Employees, which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2021. US rights to The Wax Child sold to New Directions.
Based on a real-life seventeenth century Danish witch trial, The Wax Child tells, in vivid prose, the story of Christenze Kruckow, a noblewoman long pursued by a scandal of sorcery. This acquisition moves Olga Ravn from her previous publisher in the UK, Lolli Editions. The Wax Child and The Employees are translated by Martin Aitken.
Kirke said: "Olga Ravn is one of the most exciting authors at work today and we are all exceptionally proud that she has chosen Viking as her home in the UK. The first time I read The Employees I had that lighting-strike recognition of a true original, an author of extraordinary vision with an uncanny sense of the mysterious and the strange, the beautiful and the human. The Wax Child is another classic in the making: a thrilling portrayal of the surreal and powerful hold witchcraft possessed over the pre-modern mind. I can’t wait for English language readers to experience it."
Olga Ravn is one of Denmark’s most celebrated contemporary authors. She is also a poet and as an editor was responsible for the relaunch of Tove Ditlevsen’s work.
She said: "I am so incredibly proud that my books will be published by the wonderful people at Viking from now on and I look forward to sharing The Wax Child in Martin Aitken’s fantastic translation with readers in the UK. I am beyond thrilled to find myself in this situation since I spend most days sitting on my own reading archives and moving sentences around. Joining a historic house like Penguin feels momentous."
Viking will publish The Wax Child in hardback, audio and e-book in autumn 2025.
