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Young Freya stays with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that ensue, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, blend of nervousness and irritation flitting across their faces as they ultimately free her from her improvised coffin.

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

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's publication has been marred by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other candidates withdrew in dissent at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Conversation of trans rights is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of significant issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of mainstream and online outlets, parental neglect and abuse are all examined.

Four Accounts of Pain

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow moves to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on trial as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya balances revenge with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a parent journeys to a burial with his adolescent son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's history.

Trauma is piled on suffering as wounded survivors seem fated to bump into each other continuously for all time

Linked Accounts

Links abound. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one account return in homes, taverns or courtrooms in another.

These storylines may sound complex, but the author is skilled at how to power a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been rendered into numerous languages. His straightforward prose shines with gripping hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is change my name".

Character Portrayal and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in brief, effective lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with tragic power or insightful humour: a boy is hit by his father after having an accident at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap jabs 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 authentic frisson, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times practically comic: pain is piled on pain, chance on chance in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem destined to encounter each other continuously for forever.

Thematic Depth and Final Assessment

If this sounds different from life and more like purgatory, that is part of the author's point. These wounded people are oppressed by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn hurt others. The author has spoken about the effect of his personal experiences of mistreatment and he depicts with sympathy the way his characters navigate this risky landscape, striving for treatments – seclusion, icy sea dips, reconciliation or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" framing isn't extremely instructive, while the brisk pace means the discussion of social issues or online networks is primarily shallow. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a completely accessible, survivor-centered chronicle: a welcome rebuttal to the common fixation on authorities and criminals. The author illustrates how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how years and tenderness can silence its echoes.