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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the days that ensue, they violate her, then inter her while living, a mix of nervousness and irritation passing across their faces as they eventually liberate her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the disturbing focal point of a novel, but it's only one of multiple terrible events in The Elements, which collects four novellas – released individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate historical pain and try to achieve peace in the contemporary moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's release has been overshadowed by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other nominees pulled out in dissent at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Debate of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of significant issues. Homophobia, the effect of conventional and digital platforms, caregiver abandonment and abuse are all examined.

Multiple Accounts of Pain

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow moves to a secluded Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on trial as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya balances revenge with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a dad journeys to a funeral with his teenage son, and considers how much to divulge about his family's past.

Trauma is layered with trauma as damaged survivors seem destined to encounter each other continuously for eternity

Linked Accounts

Links proliferate. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to leave 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 resurface in houses, taverns or judicial venues in another.

These storylines may sound tangled, but the author is skilled at how to propel a narrative – his previous acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into many languages. His direct prose shines with suspenseful hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is change my name".

Character Development and Narrative Power

Characters are sketched in concise, powerful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with tragic power or insightful humour: a boy is hit by his father after urinating at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's knack of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine thrill, for the opening times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is numbing, and at times nearly comic: trauma is accumulated upon pain, chance on accident in a grim farce in which wounded survivors seem fated to bump into each other continuously for eternity.

Conceptual Depth and Final Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and closer to purgatory, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, trapped in routines of thought and behavior that stir and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has discussed about the effect of his personal experiences of abuse and he describes with understanding the way his ensemble traverse this risky landscape, reaching out for remedies – isolation, icy sea dips, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "elemental" concept isn't particularly informative, while the rapid pace means the discussion of gender dynamics or digital platforms is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a entirely engaging, victim-focused chronicle: a welcome riposte to the usual obsession on authorities and offenders. The author demonstrates how pain can permeate lives and generations, and how time and care can soften its reverberations.