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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that come after, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, combination of unease and frustration darting across their faces as they ultimately liberate her from her improvised coffin.

This could have served as the disturbing centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of multiple awful events in The Elements, which collects four novelettes – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate historical pain and try to discover peace in the present moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's publication has been overshadowed by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other contenders pulled out in objection at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Conversation of LGBTQ+ matters is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of significant issues. Homophobia, the effect of traditional and social media, family disregard and assault are all investigated.

Distinct Accounts of Suffering

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow relocates to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on court case as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya balances revenge with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a father flies to a burial with his teenage son, and ponders how much to reveal about his family's background.

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

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Relationships abound. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one narrative resurface in homes, bars or courtrooms in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author knows how to drive a narrative – his earlier successful Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been converted into many languages. His businesslike prose bristles with gripping hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to experiment with fire"; "the primary step I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Character Portrayal and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in brief, impactful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes resonate with sad 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 weak tea.

The author's ability of carrying you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an previous story a genuine excitement, for the opening times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times practically comic: suffering is layered with trauma, coincidence on accident in a grim farce in which wounded survivors seem destined to bump into each other again and again for forever.

Thematic Depth and Final Assessment

If this sounds less like life and more like limbo, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have suffered, stuck in cycles of thought and behavior that churn and descend and may in turn hurt others. The author has talked about the effect of his own experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with compassion the way his characters negotiate this risky landscape, extending for treatments – seclusion, frigid water immersion, forgiveness or refreshing honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't extremely educational, while the quick pace means the discussion of social issues or digital platforms is mainly surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a thoroughly readable, survivor-centered chronicle: a welcome rebuttal to the typical obsession on detectives and perpetrators. The author illustrates how trauma can run through lives and generations, and how time and compassion can quieten its echoes.