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Young Freya spends time with her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that come after, they will rape her, then entomb her breathing, a mix of nervousness and annoyance flitting across their faces as they eventually free her from her improvised coffin.

This might have stood as the shocking main event of a novel, but it's just one of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which collects four short novels – released separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront historical pain and try to achieve peace in the current moment.

Disputed Context and Subject Exploration

The book's release has been overshadowed by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders dropped out in objection at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Debate of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of significant issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of conventional and digital platforms, caregiver abandonment and sexual violence are all investigated.

Multiple Stories of Pain

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow moves to a remote Irish island after her husband is jailed for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on legal proceedings as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya balances revenge with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a parent flies to a memorial service with his teenage son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's history.

Trauma is layered with suffering as damaged survivors seem fated to encounter each other again and again for eternity

Linked Narratives

Connections abound. 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, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one narrative return in homes, taverns or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author is skilled at how to power a narrative – his prior popular Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into numerous 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 first thing I do when I reach the island is alter my name".

Character Portrayal and Storytelling Power

Characters are portrayed in succinct, impactful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with melancholy power or perceptive humour: a boy is punched by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange insults over cups of diluted tea.

The author's knack of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine excitement, for the first few times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: suffering is layered with suffering, coincidence on accident in a grim farce in which hurt survivors seem destined to bump into each other repeatedly for forever.

Conceptual Depth and Final Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and more like limbo, that is element of the author's message. These wounded people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, stuck in routines of thought and behavior that stir and spiral and may in turn damage others. The author has discussed about the effect of his personal experiences of mistreatment and he describes with compassion the way his cast navigate this dangerous landscape, reaching out for treatments – isolation, cold ocean swims, reconciliation or bracing honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't particularly informative, while the brisk pace means the examination of gender dynamics or digital platforms is mostly shallow. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly accessible, victim-focused chronicle: a valued response to the common fixation on investigators and criminals. The author illustrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how time and tenderness can quieten its reverberations.