Den ugifte adelskvinde Christenze Kruckow anklages for trolddom og må flygte fra Sydfyn til Nordjylland. Her bliver hun en del af en gruppe af kvinder omkring den smukke aalborgkone Maren Kneppis. Men snart indhentes Christenze af sit trolddomsrygte og må indse, at ikke bare hun, men også hendes veninder er i stor fare for at ende på bålet.
Den centrale anklage mod Christenze er, at hun skulle have lavet et magisk barn af voks. Det er denne dukke, der nu tager ordet for at fortælle historien om kvindernes skæbne.
VOKSBARNET er et portræt af et skrøbeligt fællesskab, et indblik i en magisk hverdag og en skrækindjagende fortælling om en hekseproces – baseret på en række virkelige hændelser fra 1600-tallets Nordjylland.
"Is this a human problem? If so, I'd like to keep it. The crew of the Six-Thousand Ship consists of those who were born, and those who were made. Those who will die, and those who will not. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew is perplexed to find itself becoming deeply attached to them, and human and humanoid employees alike start aching for the same things: warmth and intimacy. Loved ones who have passed. Shopping and child-rearing. Our shared, far-away Earth, which now only persists in memory. Gradually, the crew members come to see their work in a new light, and each employee is compelled to ask themselves whether they can carry on as before-- and what it means to be truly living. Structured as a series of witness statements compiled by a workplace commission, Olga Ravin's crackling prose is as chilling as it is moving, as exhilarating as it is foreboding. Wracked by all kinds of longing, The employees probes into what it means to be human, emotionally and ontologically, while simultaneously delivering an overdue critique of a life governed by work and the logic of productivity."--
