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Young Freya spends time with her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she encounters 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they inform her, "is having one of your own." In the days that come after, they violate her, then entomb her breathing, blend of anxiety and irritation darting across their faces as they eventually free her from her improvised coffin.

This may have functioned as the disturbing focal point of a novel, but it's only one of numerous awful events in The Elements, which assembles four novellas – released individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to achieve peace in the current moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's issuance has been marred by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other candidates pulled out in protest at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Discussion of gender identity issues is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of significant issues. Homophobia, the effect of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and assault are all examined.

Four Accounts of Pain

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on court case as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya balances revenge with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a father travels to a funeral with his teenage son, and wonders how much to reveal about his family's history.

Trauma is layered with pain as damaged survivors seem fated to bump into each other again and again for eternity

Related Accounts

Connections proliferate. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one story reappear in cottages, bars or judicial venues in another.

These storylines may sound complicated, 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 many languages. His businesslike prose sparkles with gripping hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to experiment with fire"; "the first thing I do when I come to the island is modify my name".

Personality Portrayal and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in concise, impactful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes resonate with sad power or insightful humour: a boy is struck by his father after urinating at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade jabs over cups of watery tea.

The author's ability of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is dulling, and at times practically comic: pain is piled on suffering, chance on accident in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem fated to encounter each other again and again for forever.

Thematic Complexity and Final Assessment

If this sounds not exactly life and resembling limbo, that is part of the author's thesis. These wounded people are oppressed by the crimes they have suffered, caught in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn hurt others. The author has talked about the effect of his own experiences of harm and he depicts with compassion the way his cast navigate this perilous landscape, extending for treatments – isolation, cold ocean swims, reconciliation or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "basic" structure isn't extremely educational, while the quick pace means the discussion of sexual politics or online networks is primarily shallow. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a entirely accessible, victim-focused chronicle: a valued rebuttal to the typical fixation on detectives and perpetrators. The author shows how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how time and compassion can soften its aftereffects.