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Young Freya is visiting her distracted mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that follow, they will rape her, then entomb her breathing, blend of nervousness and annoyance flitting across their faces as they eventually free her from her temporary coffin.

This could have served as the disturbing centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of numerous awful events in The Elements, which collects four novelettes – released separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate historical pain and try to find peace in the contemporary moment.

Disputed Context and Subject Exploration

The book's release has been overshadowed by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other candidates withdrew in objection at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled.

Conversation of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of significant issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of traditional and social media, family disregard and sexual violence are all explored.

Multiple Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a isolated Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on court case as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya juggles revenge with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father travels to a funeral with his adolescent son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's background.

Pain is piled on suffering as wounded survivors seem destined to encounter each other again and again for forever

Related Accounts

Links multiply. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one narrative resurface in homes, taverns or judicial venues in another.

These storylines may sound complicated, but the author knows how to propel a narrative – his prior successful Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been converted into many languages. His direct prose bristles with thriller-ish hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to experiment with fire"; "the first thing I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Character Development and Narrative Strength

Characters are drawn in succinct, impactful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with melancholy power or perceptive humour: a boy is struck by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange jabs over cups of weak tea.

The author's talent of carrying you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an prior story a real thrill, for the first few times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is dulling, and at times practically comic: suffering is accumulated upon pain, coincidence on chance in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem destined to encounter each other continuously for all time.

Thematic Complexity and Concluding Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and closer to limbo, that is element of the author's thesis. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, stuck in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn hurt others. The author has spoken about the influence of his personal experiences of abuse and he describes with sympathy the way his ensemble negotiate this dangerous landscape, reaching out for treatments – seclusion, frigid water immersion, reconciliation or bracing honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "fundamental" framing isn't extremely educational, while the quick pace means the exploration of social issues or digital platforms is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a completely accessible, victim-focused chronicle: a valued rebuttal to the typical obsession on authorities and criminals. The author demonstrates how trauma can run through lives and generations, and how years and tenderness can quieten its echoes.