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Young Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she comes across teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that follow, they violate her, then bury her alive, blend of unease and frustration darting across their faces as they eventually free her from her improvised coffin.

This could have served as the shocking main event of a novel, but it's only one of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which gathers four novelettes – released distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate past trauma and try to discover peace in the current moment.

Disputed Context and Subject Exploration

The book's publication has been overshadowed by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other nominees pulled out in objection at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Discussion of gender identity issues is absent from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of significant issues. Homophobia, the impact of traditional and social media, family disregard and assault are all explored.

Multiple Stories of Pain

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on court case as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya manages vengeance with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father journeys to a memorial service with his young son, and wonders how much to reveal about his family's history.

Trauma is piled on suffering as damaged survivors seem doomed to meet each other continuously for all time

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Connections multiply. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one story resurface in cottages, bars or legal settings in another.

These plot threads may sound tangled, but the author understands how to power a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His direct prose bristles with gripping 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 Storytelling Power

Characters are portrayed in concise, powerful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or insightful humour: a boy is struck 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 weak tea.

The author's ability of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine frisson, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: pain is piled on suffering, coincidence on accident in a grim farce in which hurt survivors seem doomed to meet each other continuously for all time.

Thematic Depth and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds less like life and closer to purgatory, that is aspect of the author's message. These damaged people are oppressed by the crimes they have suffered, stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that churn and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has talked about the effect of his own experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with compassion the way his cast navigate this dangerous landscape, reaching out for remedies – seclusion, frigid water immersion, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "fundamental" framing isn't particularly informative, while the rapid pace means the exploration of gender dynamics or digital platforms is mainly surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a thoroughly readable, victim-focused epic: a appreciated rebuttal to the usual fixation on detectives and offenders. The author illustrates how pain can run through lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can silence its reverberations.