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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 tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that come after, they violate her, then entomb her breathing, blend of nervousness and frustration flitting across their faces as they finally release her from her temporary coffin.

This could have served as the jarring main event of a novel, but it's merely a single of multiple terrible events in The Elements, which assembles four novellas – released individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate past trauma and try to find peace in the contemporary moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's publication has been overshadowed by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders pulled out in objection at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Discussion of LGBTQ+ matters is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the impact of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and abuse are all investigated.

Multiple Accounts of Suffering

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow relocates to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a parent travels to a funeral with his young son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's history.

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

Interconnected Narratives

Relationships multiply. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one narrative reappear in houses, taverns or courtrooms in another.

These plot threads may sound tangled, but the author knows how to drive a narrative – his prior popular Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been translated into many languages. His direct prose bristles with suspenseful hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to toy with fire"; "the first thing I do when I arrive on the island is change my name".

Character Development and Storytelling Strength

Characters are sketched in succinct, effective lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes resonate with melancholy power or insightful humour: a boy is punched by his father after having an accident at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange insults 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 earlier story a authentic thrill, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is numbing, and at times practically comic: trauma is piled on suffering, accident on coincidence in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem destined to bump into each other continuously for all time.

Thematic Depth and Final Assessment

If this sounds less like life and resembling uncertainty, that is part of the author's point. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has discussed about the impact of his individual experiences of abuse and he portrays with sympathy the way his ensemble negotiate this dangerous landscape, extending for solutions – isolation, icy sea dips, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "basic" structure isn't particularly educational, while the rapid pace means the examination of social issues or digital platforms is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a thoroughly engaging, survivor-centered saga: a appreciated riposte to the common fixation on authorities and criminals. The author illustrates how suffering can run through lives and generations, and how time and compassion can quieten its aftereffects.