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Twelve-year-old Freya spends time with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she comes across teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "is having one of your own." In the time that come after, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, blend of unease and annoyance flitting across their faces as they eventually free her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the jarring main event of a novel, but it's merely a single of multiple terrible events in The Elements, which collects four novellas – published distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate previous suffering and try to discover peace in the present moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's publication has been overshadowed by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other nominees dropped out in objection at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Discussion of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of significant issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the effect of traditional and social media, family disregard and sexual violence are all explored.

Distinct Narratives of Trauma

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow moves to a secluded Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on court case as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya juggles revenge with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a father journeys to a memorial service with his young son, and considers how much to disclose about his family's past.

Suffering is layered with pain as hurt survivors seem fated to meet each other repeatedly for forever

Interconnected Stories

Links proliferate. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's panel 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 reappear in houses, pubs or legal settings in another.

These plot threads may sound complicated, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his earlier successful Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His straightforward prose shines with thriller-ish hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to toy with fire"; "the first thing I do when I arrive on the island is alter my name".

Personality Development and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in brief, impactful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with melancholy power or insightful humour: a boy is struck by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade insults over cups of watery tea.

The author's ability of transporting you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an previous story a genuine frisson, for the first few times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times practically comic: trauma is piled on suffering, chance on accident in a grim farce in which hurt survivors seem doomed to meet each other continuously for eternity.

Thematic Complexity and Final Assessment

If this sounds not exactly life and closer to uncertainty, that is part of the author's point. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have endured, caught in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and plunge and may in turn damage others. The author has talked about the effect of his own experiences of harm and he describes with understanding the way his ensemble traverse this risky landscape, striving for remedies – isolation, cold ocean swims, resolution or invigorating honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "fundamental" structure isn't terribly informative, while the brisk pace means the exploration of gender dynamics or digital platforms is mainly superficial. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly accessible, trauma-oriented epic: a appreciated rebuttal to the usual obsession on authorities and offenders. The author illustrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can silence its echoes.