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Young Freya spends time with her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that follow, they will rape her, then entomb her breathing, a mix of unease and frustration passing across their faces as they finally release her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of many awful events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – issued individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront historical pain and try to discover peace in the current moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been clouded by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other nominees dropped out in protest at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Discussion of gender identity issues is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of big issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the influence of traditional and social media, family disregard and abuse are all examined.

Four Accounts of Suffering

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow moves to a remote Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on trial as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages vengeance with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a dad flies to a memorial service with his young son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's history.

Suffering is accumulated upon trauma as wounded survivors seem fated to bump into each other repeatedly for eternity

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Connections multiply. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one account return in cottages, taverns or judicial venues in another.

These storylines may sound complex, but the author knows how to power a narrative – his previous popular Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into many languages. His direct prose sparkles with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to experiment with fire"; "the initial action I do when I arrive on the island is change my name".

Character Development and Storytelling Power

Characters are portrayed in succinct, effective lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with melancholy power or insightful 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 insults over cups of watery tea.

The author's ability of carrying you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: trauma is piled on suffering, accident on accident in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to encounter each other again and again for all time.

Conceptual Depth and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds less like life and resembling purgatory, that is part of the author's message. These damaged people are oppressed by the crimes they have experienced, stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and descend and may in turn hurt others. The author has spoken about the effect of his personal experiences of abuse and he depicts with understanding the way his ensemble traverse this perilous landscape, reaching out for solutions – seclusion, icy sea dips, reconciliation or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "basic" concept isn't particularly instructive, while the rapid pace means the exploration of social issues or digital platforms is primarily surface-level. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly accessible, trauma-oriented chronicle: a valued riposte to the common fixation on detectives and offenders. The author shows how pain can affect lives and generations, and how duration and care can quieten its echoes.