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Young Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the time that come after, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, blend of unease and irritation flitting across their faces as they finally release her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's only one of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which gathers four novelettes – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to discover peace in the present moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been marred by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other candidates dropped out in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Debate of gender identity issues is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and abuse are all examined.

Four Stories of Trauma

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow moves to a isolated Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on legal proceedings as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya juggles vengeance with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a father journeys to a burial with his teenage son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's background.

Suffering is layered with suffering as hurt survivors seem destined to meet each other again and again for all time

Related Stories

Links abound. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one account reappear in homes, pubs or judicial venues in another.

These narrative elements may sound tangled, but the author is skilled at how to propel a narrative – his previous successful Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His direct prose shines with gripping hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to play with fire"; "the primary step I do when I reach the island is modify my name".

Personality Development and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in concise, impactful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes resonate with melancholy power or observational humour: a boy is punched by his father after urinating at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's talent of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is numbing, and at times nearly comic: trauma is piled on suffering, accident on chance in a bleak farce in which damaged survivors seem destined to encounter each other again and again for all time.

Thematic Depth and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds different from life and resembling limbo, that is element of the author's message. These wounded people are oppressed by the crimes they have experienced, caught in patterns of thought and behavior that churn and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has talked about the effect of his personal experiences of harm and he portrays with compassion the way his ensemble negotiate this dangerous landscape, extending for solutions – solitude, icy sea dips, reconciliation or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "elemental" concept isn't particularly instructive, while the rapid pace means the discussion of social issues or social media is mostly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a thoroughly engaging, survivor-centered epic: a appreciated rebuttal to the common preoccupation on investigators and offenders. The author illustrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how years and tenderness can silence its echoes.