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Twelve-year-old Freya spends time with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that follow, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, combination of nervousness and irritation darting across their faces as they ultimately release her from her temporary coffin.

This could have served as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of many horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four short novels – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the current moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's publication has been clouded by the presence of Earth, the second novella, on the candidate list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other nominees withdrew in objection at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Conversation of gender identity issues is absent from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of big issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the impact of conventional and digital platforms, family disregard and sexual violence are all explored.

Four Accounts of Suffering

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow transfers to a secluded Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on trial as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya juggles vengeance with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father flies to a burial with his young son, and wonders how much to disclose about his family's history.

Trauma is accumulated upon trauma as damaged survivors seem destined to bump into each other continuously for eternity

Linked Stories

Links abound. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one narrative resurface in houses, taverns or courtrooms in another.

These storylines may sound tangled, but the author knows how to drive a narrative – his earlier popular Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been converted into dozens languages. His direct prose bristles with gripping hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to experiment with fire"; "the primary step I do when I arrive on the island is change my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are drawn in succinct, effective lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with sad power or insightful humour: a boy is hit by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap jabs over cups of watery tea.

The author's talent of carrying you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a real excitement, for the first few times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: trauma is accumulated upon trauma, chance on chance in a dark farce in which wounded survivors seem doomed to encounter each other repeatedly for forever.

Thematic Complexity and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds not exactly life and more like uncertainty, that is part of the author's thesis. These damaged people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and descend and may in turn damage others. The author has spoken about the effect of his personal experiences of harm and he depicts with compassion the way his cast traverse this risky landscape, extending for solutions – seclusion, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "basic" framing isn't terribly informative, while the rapid pace means the discussion of sexual politics or social media is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly readable, survivor-centered saga: a welcome rebuttal to the typical preoccupation on authorities and offenders. The author shows how trauma can run through lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can soften its echoes.