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Young Freya is visiting her distracted mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that come after, they violate her, then bury her alive, blend of nervousness and annoyance flitting across their faces as they ultimately liberate her from her temporary coffin.

This could have served as the disturbing main event of a novel, but it's only one of numerous awful events in The Elements, which assembles four short novels – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate previous suffering and try to find peace in the contemporary moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

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

Conversation of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of significant issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of mainstream and online outlets, parental neglect and sexual violence are all examined.

Four Narratives of Suffering

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a secluded Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a parent journeys to a burial with his adolescent son, and considers how much to reveal about his family's background.

Pain is layered with suffering as damaged survivors seem fated to meet each other continuously for all time

Interconnected Stories

Relationships multiply. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one narrative resurface in homes, bars or courtrooms in another.

These plot threads may sound tangled, but the author knows how to drive a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into many languages. His businesslike prose sparkles with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to play with fire"; "the primary step I do when I come to the island is change my name".

Personality Development and Narrative Strength

Characters are sketched in brief, powerful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or perceptive humour: a boy is hit by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's talent of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an previous story a genuine thrill, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is numbing, and at times practically comic: suffering is piled on suffering, coincidence on coincidence in a grim farce in which hurt survivors seem fated to meet each other continuously for forever.

Conceptual Complexity and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds not exactly life and resembling purgatory, that is element of the author's point. These hurt people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, stuck in cycles of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn harm others. The author has discussed about the impact of his individual experiences of abuse and he portrays with understanding the way his cast traverse this risky landscape, striving for remedies – solitude, cold ocean swims, resolution or bracing honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "elemental" framing isn't particularly informative, while the rapid pace means the examination of social issues or social media is primarily superficial. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly readable, trauma-oriented epic: a appreciated response to the typical preoccupation on investigators and perpetrators. The author illustrates how suffering can run through lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can silence its aftereffects.