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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that ensue, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, blend of nervousness and irritation passing across their faces as they eventually free her from her improvised coffin.

This could have served as the disturbing centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of numerous terrible events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – issued individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the present moment.

Disputed Context and Subject Exploration

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

Debate of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of significant issues. Homophobia, the impact of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and sexual violence are all explored.

Four Narratives of Trauma

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow moves to a isolated Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on court case as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages retaliation with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father flies to a funeral with his teenage son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's history.

Trauma is accumulated upon pain as hurt survivors seem doomed to meet each other again and again for all time

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Relationships abound. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one account resurface in homes, pubs or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author understands how to power a narrative – his previous acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His businesslike prose sparkles with thriller-ish hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to experiment with fire"; "the initial action I do when I reach the island is alter my name".

Character Development and Narrative Strength

Characters are portrayed in concise, effective lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes echo with melancholy power or observational humour: a boy is hit by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's ability of carrying you wholeheartedly 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 desensitizing, and at times practically comic: suffering is accumulated upon pain, accident on coincidence in a bleak farce in which damaged survivors seem destined to encounter each other again and again for all time.

Conceptual Depth and Final Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and closer to limbo, that is element of the author's point. These hurt people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and plunge and may in turn hurt others. The author has discussed about the effect of his own experiences of mistreatment and he describes with sympathy the way his ensemble traverse this risky landscape, extending for remedies – seclusion, frigid water immersion, reconciliation or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" framing isn't particularly instructive, while the rapid pace means the examination of social issues or online networks is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a completely readable, trauma-oriented saga: a appreciated riposte to the usual obsession on authorities and criminals. The author shows how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how time and compassion can silence its reverberations.