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Young Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that ensue, they will rape her, then bury her alive, combination of anxiety and frustration darting across their faces as they ultimately free her from her improvised coffin.

This could have served as the jarring focal point of a novel, but it's only one of many awful events in The Elements, which assembles four short novels – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront previous suffering and try to find peace in the present moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's release has been clouded by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the preliminary list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other nominees pulled out in dissent at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Discussion of trans rights is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the impact of mainstream and online outlets, parental neglect and abuse are all examined.

Four Narratives of Suffering

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow relocates to a isolated Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on trial as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya balances revenge with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a dad flies to a funeral with his young son, and ponders how much to reveal about his family's past.

Suffering is piled on trauma as wounded survivors seem doomed to bump into each other repeatedly for eternity

Interconnected Stories

Relationships multiply. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one narrative reappear in homes, pubs or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been rendered into numerous languages. His businesslike prose shines with suspenseful 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 modify my name".

Character Portrayal and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in concise, powerful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes resonate with melancholy power or observational 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 trade barbs over cups of watery tea.

The author's talent of transporting you completely into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine thrill, for the first few times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: trauma is layered with trauma, coincidence on coincidence in a grim farce in which hurt survivors seem destined to bump into each other continuously for all time.

Thematic Depth and Final Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and more like purgatory, that is aspect of the author's message. These wounded people are oppressed by the crimes they have endured, trapped in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and descend and may in turn damage others. The author has spoken about the effect of his individual experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with understanding the way his characters traverse this risky landscape, extending for remedies – solitude, icy sea dips, reconciliation or refreshing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "elemental" concept isn't particularly instructive, while the rapid pace means the discussion of sexual politics or social media is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a entirely readable, survivor-centered chronicle: a appreciated riposte to the usual preoccupation on investigators and perpetrators. The author illustrates how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how time and care can silence its reverberations.