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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the time that follow, they will rape her, then bury her alive, combination of anxiety and irritation flitting across their faces as they eventually liberate her from her improvised coffin.

This could have served as the jarring main event of a novel, but it's just one of numerous terrible events in The Elements, which assembles four novellas – released separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the current moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's publication has been marred by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the preliminary list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders dropped out in protest at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Debate of LGBTQ+ matters is missing from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the effect of traditional and social media, caregiver abandonment and abuse are all examined.

Four Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow relocates to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on court case as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya manages revenge with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a parent travels to a burial with his adolescent son, and considers how much to disclose about his family's background.

Suffering is accumulated upon pain as hurt survivors seem destined to meet each other repeatedly for forever

Related Narratives

Relationships abound. We initially encounter 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. Minor characters from one account return in homes, pubs or courtrooms in another.

These plot threads may sound tangled, but the author understands how to power a narrative – his previous acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His businesslike prose sparkles with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, 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 modify my name".

Character Portrayal and Storytelling Power

Characters are sketched in concise, effective lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes echo with melancholy power or insightful humour: a boy is struck by his father after having an accident at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's ability of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an prior story a authentic excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is dulling, and at times almost comic: pain is accumulated upon pain, coincidence on chance in a grim farce in which damaged survivors seem doomed to meet each other repeatedly for eternity.

Thematic Depth and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and resembling limbo, that is element of the author's thesis. These hurt people are oppressed by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in routines of thought and behavior that churn and plunge and may in turn damage others. The author has spoken about the influence of his own experiences of harm and he describes with understanding the way his ensemble traverse this dangerous landscape, extending for solutions – isolation, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "elemental" framing isn't extremely educational, while the brisk pace means the examination of social issues or digital platforms is primarily shallow. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a thoroughly engaging, survivor-centered epic: a welcome response to the usual preoccupation on investigators and offenders. The author illustrates how pain can run through lives and generations, and how years and tenderness can soften its reverberations.