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Young Freya spends time with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she comes across teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that follow, they violate her, then bury her alive, a mix of nervousness and irritation darting across their faces as they finally release her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking main event of a novel, but it's only one of multiple awful events in The Elements, which collects four short novels – published distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront previous suffering and try to discover peace in the current moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's issuance has been overshadowed by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders withdrew in objection at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Conversation of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of major issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the effect of traditional and social media, parental neglect and abuse are all examined.

Multiple Stories of Trauma

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow relocates to a isolated Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on court case as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a dad travels to a funeral with his teenage son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's past.

Pain is accumulated upon pain as wounded survivors seem destined to encounter each other continuously for forever

Linked Narratives

Connections proliferate. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one story return in houses, bars or courtrooms in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author is skilled at how to drive a narrative – his prior popular Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His businesslike prose sparkles with gripping hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to play with fire"; "the first thing I do when I come to the island is alter my name".

Personality Portrayal and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in succinct, powerful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or insightful humour: a boy is struck by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap barbs over cups of watery tea.

The author's talent of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine thrill, for the initial several times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times practically comic: suffering is layered with pain, accident on accident in a bleak farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to bump into each other again and again for forever.

Thematic Complexity and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds less like life and more like uncertainty, that is part of the author's message. These hurt people are burdened by the crimes they have endured, trapped in cycles of thought and behavior that stir and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has discussed about the impact of his individual experiences of mistreatment and he describes with compassion the way his cast traverse this dangerous landscape, striving for remedies – solitude, frigid water immersion, forgiveness or refreshing honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "basic" framing isn't terribly informative, while the rapid pace means the examination of social issues or social media is mostly superficial. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a entirely accessible, victim-focused epic: a welcome rebuttal to the common preoccupation on detectives and perpetrators. The author shows how trauma can run through lives and generations, and how time and tenderness can silence its aftereffects.