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Young Freya is visiting her distracted mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the time that ensue, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, a mix of nervousness and frustration darting across their faces as they finally release her from her improvised coffin.

This might have stood as the jarring centrepiece of a novel, but it's merely a single of many horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – released individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate past trauma and try to find peace in the present moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's publication has been overshadowed by the presence of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other nominees dropped out in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Debate of gender identity issues is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of significant issues. Homophobia, the impact of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and assault are all explored.

Multiple Accounts of Trauma

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a remote Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on legal proceedings as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya juggles revenge with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a dad journeys to a memorial service with his young son, and considers how much to reveal about his family's background.

Suffering is accumulated upon trauma as hurt survivors seem destined to encounter each other continuously for eternity

Linked Narratives

Links abound. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one account resurface in houses, bars or courtrooms in another.

These storylines may sound tangled, but the author knows how to power a narrative – his previous acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His businesslike prose bristles with gripping hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to experiment with fire"; "the first thing I do when I arrive on the island is change my name".

Character Development and Narrative Strength

Characters are sketched in brief, powerful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes resonate with melancholy power or perceptive humour: a boy is struck by his father after urinating 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 carrying you completely into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: pain is piled on trauma, coincidence on chance in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem doomed to meet each other repeatedly for eternity.

Thematic Complexity and Final Assessment

If this sounds less like life and closer to purgatory, that is aspect of the author's message. These wounded people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that churn and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the influence of his personal experiences of harm and he describes with understanding the way his characters traverse this dangerous landscape, striving for solutions – solitude, icy sea dips, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "elemental" structure isn't particularly informative, while the rapid pace means the examination of social issues or online networks is primarily shallow. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a thoroughly readable, survivor-centered epic: a appreciated rebuttal to the typical preoccupation on detectives and criminals. The author demonstrates how trauma can run through lives and generations, and how years and care can quieten its reverberations.