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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she encounters 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that come after, they violate her, then inter her while living, blend of unease and irritation passing across their faces as they ultimately release her from her improvised coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which collects four short novels – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate historical pain and try to find peace in the contemporary moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's publication has been marred by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other candidates withdrew in objection at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Conversation of gender identity issues is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of significant issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the influence of traditional and social media, caregiver abandonment and abuse are all investigated.

Multiple Stories of Trauma

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on court case as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya balances retaliation with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a dad travels to a funeral with his adolescent son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's past.

Pain is accumulated upon suffering as damaged survivors seem destined to meet each other repeatedly for eternity

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Connections abound. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's panel 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 account return in cottages, taverns or legal settings in another.

These plot threads may sound complicated, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his previous popular Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His businesslike prose sparkles with thriller-ish 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 reach the island is modify my name".

Character Development and Storytelling Power

Characters are sketched in concise, impactful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with sad power or perceptive humour: a boy is hit by his father after urinating at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of diluted tea.

The author's ability of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an previous story a genuine frisson, for the first few times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times almost comic: pain is accumulated upon trauma, chance on accident in a grim farce in which damaged survivors seem doomed to bump into each other again and again for all time.

Thematic Depth and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds not exactly life and resembling purgatory, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have endured, stuck in cycles of thought and behavior that churn and spiral and may in turn damage others. The author has talked about the impact of his individual experiences of mistreatment and he describes with compassion the way his cast navigate this risky landscape, striving for treatments – solitude, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't terribly informative, while the quick pace means the exploration of gender dynamics or social media is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a thoroughly readable, survivor-centered saga: a valued response to the typical fixation on authorities and criminals. The author demonstrates how pain can run through lives and generations, and how years and compassion can soften its echoes.