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Young Freya is visiting her distracted mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that ensue, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, blend of nervousness and annoyance flitting across their faces as they finally release her from her improvised coffin.

This could have served as the shocking focal point of a novel, but it's merely a single of numerous terrible events in The Elements, which collects four novelettes – issued distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate historical pain and try to find peace in the current moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's publication has been clouded by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other nominees withdrew in protest at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Debate of LGBTQ+ matters is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of significant issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the effect of traditional and social media, parental neglect and abuse are all explored.

Multiple Stories of Trauma

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a secluded 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 grown-up Freya juggles revenge with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a parent travels to a funeral with his young son, and wonders how much to reveal about his family's past.

Suffering is accumulated upon pain as hurt survivors seem doomed to encounter each other again and again for forever

Linked Stories

Links abound. We initially encounter 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, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one story reappear in cottages, pubs or judicial venues in another.

These narrative elements may sound complex, but the author is skilled at how to propel a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His direct prose shines with thriller-ish hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are sketched in brief, effective lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes echo with sad power or perceptive humour: a boy is struck by his father after urinating at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of watery tea.

The author's talent of transporting you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an prior story a real thrill, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: trauma is piled on suffering, coincidence on chance in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to meet each other continuously for forever.

Conceptual Depth and Final Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and closer to limbo, that is aspect of the author's message. These wounded people are burdened by the crimes they have experienced, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn hurt others. The author has talked about the influence of his own experiences of abuse and he describes with compassion the way his cast navigate this risky landscape, extending for solutions – isolation, cold ocean swims, resolution or refreshing honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't terribly informative, while the rapid pace means the discussion of social issues or digital platforms is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a entirely readable, victim-focused epic: a welcome rebuttal to the typical preoccupation on investigators and perpetrators. The author demonstrates how pain can affect lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can soften its reverberations.