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Young Freya stays with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the days that come after, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, blend of anxiety and irritation passing across their faces as they eventually release her from her makeshift coffin.

This might have stood as the disturbing main event of a novel, but it's only one of many terrible events in The Elements, which gathers four novellas – published individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate historical pain and try to achieve peace in the present moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

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

Debate of LGBTQ+ matters is absent from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the impact of traditional and social media, family disregard and sexual violence are all examined.

Four Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow transfers to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on court case as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya balances revenge with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father journeys to a memorial service with his adolescent son, and considers how much to disclose about his family's history.

Pain is accumulated upon trauma as damaged survivors seem fated to meet each other repeatedly for forever

Linked Stories

Relationships proliferate. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one story resurface in houses, bars or judicial venues in another.

These narrative elements may sound complex, but the author is skilled at how to drive a narrative – his previous successful Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been rendered into many languages. His businesslike prose bristles with thriller-ish hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the first thing I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Character Development and Storytelling Strength

Characters are portrayed in brief, effective lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes ring with tragic power or insightful humour: a boy is punched by his father after having an accident at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs 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 earlier story a real frisson, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: pain is layered with pain, chance on chance in a grim farce in which wounded survivors seem doomed to bump into each other again and again for forever.

Conceptual Depth and Final Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and closer to uncertainty, that is element of the author's thesis. These wounded people are oppressed by the crimes they have experienced, caught in cycles of thought and behavior that agitate and descend and may in turn damage others. The author has discussed about the influence of his personal experiences of harm and he portrays with sympathy the way his ensemble navigate this risky landscape, reaching out for remedies – seclusion, frigid water immersion, resolution or refreshing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't particularly instructive, while the rapid pace means the examination of social issues or online networks is primarily surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a completely accessible, victim-focused epic: a appreciated response to the typical preoccupation on authorities and offenders. The author illustrates how trauma can run through lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can soften its reverberations.