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Twelve-year-old Freya spends time with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they inform her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that come after, they violate her, then bury her alive, blend of nervousness and irritation passing across their faces as they finally liberate her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the jarring focal point of a novel, but it's merely a single of numerous terrible events in The Elements, which gathers four novelettes – issued individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate historical pain and try to achieve peace in the contemporary moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been marred by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders pulled out in objection at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Discussion of gender identity issues is absent from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of significant issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of mainstream and online outlets, caregiver abandonment and sexual violence are all investigated.

Four Stories of Suffering

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow moves to a isolated Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on trial as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages revenge with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a dad journeys to a funeral with his young son, and considers how much to reveal about his family's history.

Pain is layered with suffering as wounded survivors seem fated to encounter each other again and again for eternity

Interconnected Accounts

Links multiply. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one narrative return in houses, taverns or courtrooms in another.

These narrative elements may sound tangled, but the author knows how to power a narrative – his earlier popular Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into many languages. His direct prose shines with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to experiment with fire"; "the first thing I do when I reach the island is change my name".

Character Portrayal and Narrative Strength

Characters are drawn in succinct, impactful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes ring with tragic power or observational 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 watery tea.

The author's knack of transporting you completely into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an prior story a authentic excitement, for the first few times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times almost comic: suffering is accumulated upon trauma, chance on coincidence in a grim farce in which hurt survivors seem fated to bump into each other continuously for eternity.

Conceptual Depth and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds not exactly life and resembling limbo, that is part of the author's point. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have endured, caught in cycles of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn damage others. The author has discussed about the impact of his own experiences of abuse and he portrays with sympathy the way his characters navigate this dangerous landscape, striving for solutions – solitude, cold ocean swims, resolution or refreshing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't extremely instructive, while the brisk pace means the examination of gender dynamics or digital platforms is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a completely readable, victim-focused epic: a valued riposte to the common obsession on authorities and perpetrators. The author demonstrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how time and care can silence its echoes.