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Twelve-year-old Freya stays with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she encounters 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that follow, they violate her, then entomb her breathing, a mix of nervousness and irritation passing across their faces as they eventually liberate her from her improvised coffin.

This might have stood as the shocking main event of a novel, but it's just one of multiple awful events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – published individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to discover peace in the contemporary moment.

Disputed Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been clouded by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other candidates pulled out in objection at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Debate of LGBTQ+ matters is absent from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of major issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the impact of traditional and social media, parental neglect and sexual violence are all examined.

Multiple Stories of Trauma

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow relocates to a secluded Irish island after her husband is jailed for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on trial as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages retaliation with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a father flies to a funeral with his young son, and ponders how much to reveal about his family's background.

Pain is piled on suffering as wounded survivors seem destined to encounter each other repeatedly for forever

Related Stories

Connections proliferate. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one account reappear in houses, taverns or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound tangled, but the author knows how to propel a narrative – his previous acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been converted into dozens languages. His straightforward prose bristles with gripping hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to toy with fire"; "the first thing I do when I come to the island is modify my name".

Character Portrayal and Storytelling Power

Characters are drawn in brief, effective lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes resonate with tragic power or observational humour: a boy is struck by his father after urinating at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's ability of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine thrill, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is dulling, and at times nearly comic: pain is accumulated upon pain, coincidence on accident in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem destined to bump into each other continuously for forever.

Thematic Depth and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and resembling uncertainty, that is element of the author's point. These wounded people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, caught in cycles of thought and behavior that churn and spiral and may in turn hurt others. The author has spoken about the effect of his personal experiences of abuse and he describes with sympathy the way his cast negotiate this risky landscape, striving for remedies – seclusion, icy sea dips, reconciliation or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "elemental" structure isn't extremely informative, while the rapid pace means the examination of gender dynamics or online networks is primarily shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely accessible, victim-focused saga: a valued rebuttal to the typical obsession on authorities and offenders. The author illustrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how time and care can quieten its reverberations.