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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 weeks that ensue, they will rape her, then inter her while living, combination of anxiety and annoyance flitting across their faces as they ultimately liberate her from her makeshift coffin.

This may have functioned as the disturbing centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of multiple awful events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – issued distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront historical pain and try to find peace in the contemporary moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's publication has been marred by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other candidates pulled out in objection at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Debate of LGBTQ+ matters is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the impact of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and abuse are all explored.

Distinct Narratives of Trauma

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow moves to a remote Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on trial as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya juggles vengeance with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a dad travels to a funeral with his adolescent son, and considers how much to disclose about his family's history.

Trauma is piled on pain as hurt survivors seem doomed to encounter each other again and again for forever

Related Stories

Relationships abound. We originally see 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 reappear in homes, taverns or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound tangled, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been rendered into many languages. His direct prose sparkles with gripping hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to experiment with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is modify my name".

Character Development and Narrative Strength

Characters are sketched in brief, powerful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes ring with tragic power or insightful humour: a boy is struck by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of watery tea.

The author's knack of transporting you completely into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an prior story a authentic thrill, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is dulling, and at times nearly comic: suffering is piled on trauma, chance on accident in a bleak farce in which hurt survivors seem doomed to bump into each other repeatedly for all time.

Conceptual Depth and Final Assessment

If this sounds different from life and closer to purgatory, that is part of the author's point. These damaged people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and descend and may in turn hurt others. The author has spoken about the effect of his own experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with understanding the way his cast traverse this perilous landscape, striving for treatments – solitude, icy sea dips, reconciliation or refreshing honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "elemental" structure isn't extremely instructive, while the brisk pace means the examination of gender dynamics or social media is mainly surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a entirely accessible, victim-focused saga: a appreciated riposte to the common obsession on authorities and criminals. The author shows how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can soften its echoes.