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Twelve-year-old Freya spends time with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she comes across teenage twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the days that follow, they will rape her, then bury her alive, combination of nervousness and annoyance darting across their faces as they finally free her from her temporary coffin.

This could have served as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's only one of many awful events in The Elements, which collects four novelettes – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to discover peace in the present moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

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

Conversation of trans rights is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of significant issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the influence of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and assault are all examined.

Four Accounts of Suffering

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow moves to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages vengeance with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a dad journeys to a burial with his young son, and ponders how much to reveal about his family's history.

Suffering is piled on suffering as damaged survivors seem doomed to bump into each other continuously for eternity

Related Narratives

Links multiply. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's panel 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 account return in houses, taverns or courtrooms in another.

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

Character Portrayal and Storytelling Power

Characters are drawn in concise, powerful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes echo with sad power or observational humour: a boy is hit by his father after having an accident at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of diluted tea.

The author's knack of transporting you fully into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic thrill, for the first few times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is numbing, and at times practically comic: suffering is accumulated upon pain, chance on chance in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem destined to bump into each other continuously for all time.

Thematic Complexity and Final Assessment

If this sounds less like life and resembling uncertainty, that is aspect of the author's message. These wounded people are weighed down by the crimes they have endured, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and descend and may in turn hurt others. The author has talked about the impact of his own experiences of harm and he depicts with compassion the way his ensemble negotiate this dangerous landscape, extending for remedies – solitude, frigid water immersion, resolution or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "elemental" structure isn't terribly informative, while the rapid pace means the discussion of gender dynamics or digital platforms is primarily superficial. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly readable, trauma-oriented chronicle: a appreciated riposte to the usual fixation on authorities and offenders. The author demonstrates how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how years and care can soften its reverberations.