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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they inform her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that follow, they violate her, then bury her alive, combination of nervousness and frustration passing across their faces as they ultimately liberate her from her improvised coffin.

This could have served as the jarring centrepiece of a novel, but it's merely a single of multiple terrible events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront previous suffering and try to discover peace in the present moment.

Debated Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's release has been clouded by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the candidate list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other nominees pulled out in protest at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Conversation of LGBTQ+ matters is not present from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of significant issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the effect of mainstream and online outlets, parental neglect and abuse are all explored.

Four Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow moves to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya juggles vengeance with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a dad flies to a funeral with his young son, and wonders how much to divulge about his family's history.

Trauma is piled on pain as hurt survivors seem destined to bump into each other again and again for all time

Linked Narratives

Relationships proliferate. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's panel 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 story return in homes, pubs or judicial venues in another.

These plot threads may sound complex, but the author is skilled at how to drive a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His straightforward prose bristles with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to play with fire"; "the primary step I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are portrayed in brief, effective lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes ring with tragic power or insightful humour: a boy is punched 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 ability of carrying you completely into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a real frisson, for the opening times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: pain is accumulated upon suffering, chance on coincidence in a bleak farce in which hurt survivors seem doomed to meet each other repeatedly for all time.

Conceptual Depth and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and more like limbo, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These damaged people are oppressed by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and descend and may in turn hurt others. The author has talked about the influence of his personal experiences of abuse and he describes with sympathy the way his cast navigate this dangerous landscape, striving for treatments – seclusion, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or refreshing honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't extremely instructive, while the rapid pace means the examination of gender dynamics or online networks is mainly superficial. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a entirely engaging, survivor-centered chronicle: a welcome riposte to the typical obsession on authorities and offenders. The author shows how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how years and compassion can silence its reverberations.