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Young Freya is visiting her distracted mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that come after, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, a mix of anxiety and frustration flitting across their faces as they ultimately liberate her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking main event of a novel, but it's merely a single of multiple awful events in The Elements, which collects four short novels – released separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the current moment.

Debated Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's release has been overshadowed by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the candidate list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders pulled out in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Debate of LGBTQ+ matters is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of significant issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the impact of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and sexual violence are all examined.

Multiple Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow transfers to a secluded Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on legal proceedings as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya balances vengeance with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a parent travels to a burial with his teenage son, and wonders how much to reveal about his family's past.

Trauma is accumulated upon suffering as wounded survivors seem fated to encounter each other repeatedly for eternity

Interconnected Stories

Relationships abound. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one story return in cottages, taverns or judicial venues in another.

These storylines may sound complicated, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His straightforward prose sparkles with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to play with fire"; "the primary step I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Personality Portrayal and Narrative Strength

Characters are portrayed in concise, powerful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes echo with melancholy power or observational humour: a boy is hit by his father after urinating at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of diluted tea.

The author's talent of bringing you fully into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an previous story a authentic frisson, for the first few times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is dulling, and at times practically comic: trauma is layered with suffering, coincidence on chance in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem destined to encounter each other repeatedly for eternity.

Conceptual Complexity and Final Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and resembling limbo, that is aspect of the author's point. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn damage others. The author has talked about the influence of his personal experiences of harm and he depicts with sympathy the way his cast navigate this perilous landscape, reaching out for solutions – seclusion, icy sea dips, forgiveness or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" framing isn't extremely informative, while the quick pace means the examination of gender dynamics or online networks is primarily surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a entirely readable, trauma-oriented epic: a welcome rebuttal to the common fixation on detectives and perpetrators. The author shows how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how duration and care can quieten its reverberations.