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Twelve-year-old Freya stays with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she encounters 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that come after, they sexually assault her, then bury her alive, blend of nervousness and annoyance passing across their faces as they finally liberate her from her makeshift coffin.

This could have served as the jarring main event of a novel, but it's merely a single of numerous awful events in The Elements, which gathers four novellas – published distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate past trauma and try to find peace in the contemporary moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's publication has been clouded by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other nominees pulled out in protest at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Discussion of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the impact of mainstream and online outlets, caregiver abandonment and sexual violence are all investigated.

Multiple Stories of Suffering

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

Suffering is accumulated upon suffering as damaged survivors seem doomed to encounter each other repeatedly for eternity

Interconnected Narratives

Links multiply. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one story resurface in houses, bars or courtrooms in another.

These plot threads may sound tangled, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his previous successful Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been rendered into many languages. His straightforward prose sparkles with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to experiment with fire"; "the initial action I do when I reach the island is alter my name".

Character Portrayal and Narrative Strength

Characters are drawn in succinct, impactful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or observational humour: a boy is hit by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade jabs over cups of watery tea.

The author's ability of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a real excitement, for the opening times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is dulling, and at times nearly comic: trauma is accumulated upon pain, coincidence on chance in a dark farce in which wounded survivors seem doomed to meet each other again and again for all time.

Conceptual Complexity and Final Assessment

If this sounds not exactly life and closer to uncertainty, that is part of the author's message. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has talked about the effect of his own experiences of mistreatment and he depicts with sympathy the way his characters traverse this risky landscape, extending for solutions – seclusion, cold ocean swims, resolution or bracing honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "basic" framing isn't terribly educational, while the brisk pace means the discussion of gender dynamics or online networks is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a thoroughly accessible, victim-focused epic: a appreciated riposte to the usual fixation on authorities and offenders. The author demonstrates how trauma can permeate lives and generations, and how years and compassion can silence its reverberations.