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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her distracted mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that follow, they violate her, then inter her while living, blend of nervousness and annoyance darting across their faces as they finally free her from her makeshift coffin.

This could have served as the shocking focal point of a novel, but it's just one of numerous awful events in The Elements, which collects four short novels – released individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate historical pain and try to achieve peace in the present moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's publication has been marred by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other nominees pulled out in dissent at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Conversation of trans rights is absent from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of big issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the influence of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and sexual violence are all investigated.

Distinct Narratives of Trauma

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow transfers to a isolated Irish island after her husband is jailed for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya balances retaliation with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a parent flies to a funeral with his young son, and wonders how much to divulge about his family's background.

Suffering is accumulated upon trauma as damaged survivors seem destined to meet each other again and again for forever

Related Narratives

Connections multiply. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one account reappear in homes, taverns or legal settings in another.

These plot threads may sound complex, but the author is skilled at how to drive a narrative – his previous popular Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His direct prose bristles with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to play with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is modify my name".

Character Portrayal and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in concise, effective lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with melancholy power or perceptive humour: a boy is punched by his father after having an accident at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap barbs over cups of diluted tea.

The author's ability of bringing you fully into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine thrill, for the first few times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times almost comic: suffering is layered with pain, chance on chance in a bleak farce in which hurt survivors seem fated to encounter each other repeatedly for all time.

Thematic Depth and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds different from life and resembling uncertainty, that is part of the author's message. These wounded people are weighed down by the crimes they have endured, caught in patterns of thought and behavior that churn and descend and may in turn damage others. The author has spoken about the effect of his own experiences of harm and he describes with understanding the way his characters navigate this dangerous landscape, striving for solutions – solitude, cold ocean swims, reconciliation or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "elemental" framing isn't terribly educational, while the rapid pace means the examination of gender dynamics or online networks is primarily surface-level. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a thoroughly accessible, trauma-oriented saga: a welcome response to the usual fixation on investigators and criminals. The author illustrates how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can soften its echoes.