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Twelve-year-old Freya stays with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she encounters 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that follow, they violate her, then bury her alive, blend of anxiety and annoyance passing across their faces as they finally liberate her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the disturbing focal point of a novel, but it's just one of many terrible events in The Elements, which assembles four novellas – published individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate historical pain and try to discover peace in the contemporary moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been overshadowed by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders pulled out in protest at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Discussion of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the influence of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and sexual violence are all investigated.

Four Narratives of Trauma

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow transfers to a secluded Irish island after her husband is jailed for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on trial as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya balances vengeance with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a parent flies to a memorial service with his young son, and considers how much to reveal about his family's history.

Pain is accumulated upon suffering as wounded survivors seem doomed to bump into each other repeatedly for eternity

Interconnected Accounts

Relationships proliferate. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one story return in houses, bars or courtrooms in another.

These plot threads may sound complex, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his previous acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His businesslike prose bristles with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to play with fire"; "the primary step I do when I reach the island is modify my name".

Character Portrayal and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in succinct, powerful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes resonate with melancholy power or perceptive humour: a boy is struck by his father after urinating at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of watery tea.

The author's talent of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic thrill, for the first few times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: pain is layered with suffering, coincidence on chance in a bleak farce in which hurt survivors seem doomed to meet each other again and again for eternity.

Thematic Complexity and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds less like life and more like purgatory, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These damaged people are burdened by the crimes they have endured, caught in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has discussed about the effect of his own experiences of harm and he depicts with sympathy the way his cast negotiate this dangerous landscape, striving for remedies – seclusion, icy sea dips, reconciliation or refreshing honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "elemental" concept isn't particularly informative, while the rapid pace means the examination of sexual politics or digital platforms is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely accessible, survivor-centered saga: a welcome response to the usual obsession on detectives and offenders. The author demonstrates how pain can affect lives and generations, and how time and care can soften its aftereffects.