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Young Freya stays with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that come after, they will rape her, then entomb her breathing, combination of nervousness and annoyance flitting across their faces as they finally free her from her makeshift coffin.

This may have functioned as the disturbing focal point of a novel, but it's only one of numerous terrible events in The Elements, which collects four novelettes – issued individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate historical pain and try to find peace in the contemporary moment.

Disputed 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 notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders withdrew in protest at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Discussion of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the effect of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and sexual violence are all examined.

Multiple Narratives of Suffering

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow transfers to a isolated Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a parent flies to a burial with his young son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's background.

Pain is piled on trauma as damaged survivors seem destined to meet each other repeatedly for forever

Interconnected Narratives

Relationships proliferate. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one narrative reappear in cottages, taverns or legal settings in another.

These plot threads may sound complicated, but the author understands how to power a narrative – his prior popular Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His direct prose shines with thriller-ish hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the primary step I do when I reach the island is modify my name".

Personality Development and Storytelling Strength

Characters are portrayed in brief, powerful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes ring with melancholy power or perceptive humour: a boy is hit by his father after having an accident at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap jabs over cups of weak tea.

The author's knack of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic excitement, for the first few times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: pain is piled on trauma, coincidence on accident in a grim farce in which wounded survivors seem doomed to encounter each other again and again for all time.

Conceptual Complexity and Final Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and resembling limbo, that is aspect of the author's point. These damaged people are oppressed by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn hurt others. The author has talked about the effect of his own experiences of harm and he describes with compassion the way his cast navigate this dangerous landscape, striving for treatments – solitude, icy sea dips, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "elemental" framing isn't extremely informative, while the rapid pace means the examination of gender dynamics or digital platforms is mostly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely accessible, survivor-centered chronicle: a valued rebuttal to the typical obsession on authorities and criminals. The author illustrates how trauma can affect lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can quieten its aftereffects.