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Young Freya spends time with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that ensue, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, blend of nervousness and frustration passing across their faces as they eventually free her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking focal point of a novel, but it's just one of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which collects four novellas – released distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront previous suffering and try to discover peace in the contemporary moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's release has been overshadowed by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders withdrew in dissent at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Conversation of LGBTQ+ matters is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of big issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the influence of conventional and digital platforms, caregiver abandonment and abuse are all examined.

Multiple Accounts of Trauma

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow moves to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on trial as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya manages revenge with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a parent flies to a memorial service with his teenage son, and considers how much to reveal about his family's history.

Trauma is layered with pain as damaged survivors seem fated to encounter each other again and again for all time

Linked Stories

Relationships abound. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one story reappear in houses, bars or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound complex, but the author is skilled at how to drive a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been rendered into numerous languages. His straightforward prose bristles with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to play with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is alter my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are sketched in concise, effective lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or perceptive 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 swap insults over cups of weak tea.

The author's ability of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an previous story a authentic thrill, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: pain is piled on trauma, accident on chance in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem fated to meet each other again and again for all time.

Thematic Complexity and Final Assessment

If this sounds different from life and resembling purgatory, that is element of the author's thesis. These wounded people are burdened by the crimes they have endured, stuck in routines of thought and behavior that churn and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the influence of his own experiences of harm and he describes with understanding the way his characters negotiate this perilous landscape, extending for remedies – isolation, frigid water immersion, resolution or refreshing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "basic" structure isn't particularly informative, while the quick pace means the exploration of gender dynamics or digital platforms is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly readable, survivor-centered saga: a valued response to the common preoccupation on investigators and criminals. The author demonstrates how pain can run through lives and generations, and how duration and care can quieten its reverberations.