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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she encounters 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that follow, they will rape her, then entomb her breathing, a mix of unease and irritation passing across their faces as they ultimately release her from her makeshift coffin.

This could have served as the jarring centrepiece of a novel, but it's merely a single of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which gathers four novelettes – published distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate historical pain and try to find peace in the present moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been overshadowed by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders pulled out in objection at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Conversation of trans rights is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of big issues. Homophobia, the impact of mainstream and online outlets, parental neglect and sexual violence are all examined.

Multiple Accounts of Trauma

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow transfers to a isolated Irish island after her husband is jailed for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on legal proceedings as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya manages retaliation with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a dad journeys to a memorial service with his adolescent son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's background.

Trauma is layered with trauma as wounded survivors seem destined to bump into each other continuously for eternity

Interconnected Accounts

Links 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, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one story resurface in homes, bars or courtrooms in another.

These storylines may sound complicated, but the author knows how to propel a narrative – his previous popular Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been converted into dozens languages. His straightforward prose bristles with gripping hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to experiment with fire"; "the initial action I do when I arrive on the island is change my name".

Personality Portrayal and Narrative Power

Characters are sketched in concise, powerful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes echo with tragic power or insightful humour: a boy is struck by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of diluted tea.

The author's knack of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a real excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: trauma is piled on trauma, accident on accident in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem destined to bump into each other again and again for eternity.

Thematic 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 weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, caught in cycles of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn hurt others. The author has talked about the effect of his personal experiences of harm and he portrays with understanding the way his characters negotiate this perilous landscape, reaching out for solutions – solitude, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "fundamental" structure isn't terribly educational, while the rapid pace means the discussion of sexual politics or online networks is mostly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely engaging, victim-focused saga: a valued response to the usual fixation on authorities and perpetrators. The author illustrates how pain can affect lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can quieten its echoes.