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Twelve-year-old Freya spends time with her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she encounters 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 come after, they violate her, then entomb her breathing, a mix of nervousness and irritation passing across their faces as they eventually liberate her from her makeshift coffin.

This could have served as the disturbing focal point of a novel, but it's just one of numerous terrible events in The Elements, which collects four novelettes – issued individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to find peace in the current moment.

Disputed Context and Subject Exploration

The book's publication has been clouded by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other candidates withdrew in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Conversation of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of major issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the influence of conventional and digital platforms, family disregard and sexual violence are all investigated.

Distinct Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow transfers to a remote Irish island after her husband is jailed for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on court case as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya balances vengeance with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a parent journeys to a memorial service with his teenage son, and wonders how much to divulge about his family's background.

Trauma is accumulated upon suffering as wounded survivors seem fated to encounter each other continuously for all time

Linked Stories

Connections proliferate. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one story reappear in homes, taverns or judicial venues in another.

These narrative elements may sound tangled, but the author knows how to drive a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into many languages. His businesslike prose sparkles with gripping hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to play with fire"; "the primary step I do when I reach the island is modify my name".

Personality Development and Narrative Strength

Characters are portrayed in succinct, impactful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes echo with tragic power or perceptive humour: a boy is punched by his father after having an accident at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade jabs over cups of diluted tea.

The author's knack of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine thrill, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: trauma is accumulated upon pain, chance on accident in a bleak farce in which damaged survivors seem doomed to encounter each other continuously for forever.

Thematic Depth and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and closer to uncertainty, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These hurt people are burdened by the crimes they have endured, stuck in cycles of thought and behavior that stir and plunge and may in turn harm others. The author has talked about the influence of his personal experiences of harm and he depicts with sympathy the way his ensemble negotiate this perilous landscape, extending for treatments – seclusion, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or bracing honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "elemental" framing isn't terribly informative, while the brisk pace means the examination of sexual politics or online networks is mainly surface-level. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely accessible, victim-focused chronicle: a valued riposte to the common obsession on detectives and criminals. The author shows how suffering can run through lives and generations, and how duration and care can soften its reverberations.