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Young Freya stays with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that ensue, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, a mix of nervousness and irritation passing across their faces as they finally liberate her from her improvised coffin.

This may have functioned as the jarring main event of a novel, but it's merely a single of many awful events in The Elements, which assembles four short novels – released distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to find peace in the contemporary moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been overshadowed by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other nominees dropped out in objection at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Debate of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of significant issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the effect of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and abuse are all investigated.

Four Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a isolated Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on court case as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya manages retaliation with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a dad travels to a burial with his teenage son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's past.

Pain is accumulated upon trauma as damaged survivors seem destined to bump into each other again and again for all time

Linked Stories

Links multiply. We first meet 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. Secondary characters from one story reappear in homes, bars or legal settings in another.

These storylines may sound complex, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been rendered into numerous languages. His straightforward prose bristles with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to toy with fire"; "the first thing I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Personality Development and Storytelling Power

Characters are portrayed in succinct, impactful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes resonate with melancholy power or perceptive humour: a boy is punched by his father after having an accident at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap barbs over cups of diluted 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 frisson, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is dulling, and at times almost comic: suffering is accumulated upon suffering, coincidence on accident in a grim farce in which damaged survivors seem destined to encounter each other repeatedly for eternity.

Conceptual Depth and Final Assessment

If this sounds different from life and resembling uncertainty, that is element of the author's thesis. These hurt people are oppressed by the crimes they have experienced, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and spiral and may in turn damage others. The author has talked about the impact of his own experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with compassion the way his ensemble traverse this dangerous landscape, striving for solutions – seclusion, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "elemental" concept isn't particularly educational, while the quick pace means the exploration of sexual politics or digital platforms is mostly superficial. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly readable, trauma-oriented saga: a appreciated rebuttal to the usual fixation on detectives and perpetrators. The author shows how pain can run through lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can quieten its echoes.