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Young Freya spends time with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that come after, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, blend of anxiety and irritation flitting across their faces as they finally free her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the disturbing main event of a novel, but it's just one of many awful events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront historical pain and try to find peace in the present moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's publication has been marred by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders pulled out in objection 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. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and abuse are all examined.

Distinct Narratives of Suffering

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow moves to a secluded Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya juggles revenge with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a parent journeys to a burial with his teenage son, and considers how much to divulge about his family's history.

Suffering is layered with suffering as hurt survivors seem fated to meet each other again and again for all time

Linked Accounts

Links multiply. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one narrative reappear in houses, pubs or courtrooms in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author knows how to propel a narrative – his previous successful Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been rendered into dozens languages. His straightforward prose sparkles with gripping hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to play with fire"; "the primary step I do when I come to the island is change my name".

Character Development and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in concise, powerful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with tragic power or perceptive humour: a boy is struck by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's ability of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an previous story a real excitement, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times almost comic: suffering is accumulated upon suffering, chance on accident in a bleak farce in which hurt survivors seem destined to encounter each other again and again for eternity.

Conceptual Complexity and Final Evaluation

If this sounds not exactly life and resembling purgatory, that is part of the author's thesis. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, caught in cycles of thought and behavior that stir and plunge and may in turn harm others. The author has talked about the effect of his personal experiences of mistreatment and he describes with sympathy the way his cast traverse this dangerous landscape, extending for treatments – isolation, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't particularly educational, while the rapid pace means the exploration of social issues or online networks is mainly surface-level. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely engaging, trauma-oriented saga: a welcome response to the typical fixation on authorities and perpetrators. The author demonstrates how trauma can affect lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can silence its reverberations.