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Twelve-year-old Freya stays with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that ensue, they sexually assault her, then entomb her breathing, blend of anxiety and annoyance darting across their faces as they eventually free her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's merely a single of numerous terrible events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the present moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been overshadowed by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders pulled out in protest at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Discussion of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of big issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the effect of mainstream and online outlets, parental neglect and sexual violence are all investigated.

Four Narratives of Trauma

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a remote Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on court case as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya balances vengeance with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a father travels to a funeral with his young son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's past.

Suffering is layered with pain as wounded survivors seem fated to encounter each other again and again for eternity

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Connections abound. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who shows up again 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 houses, bars or courtrooms in another.

These plot threads may sound complicated, but the author knows how to power a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been rendered into dozens languages. His straightforward prose shines with gripping hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to play with fire"; "the initial action I do when I reach the island is change my name".

Personality Development and Storytelling Power

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

The author's knack of carrying you completely into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine frisson, for the first few times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times almost comic: suffering is piled on suffering, coincidence on accident in a grim farce in which damaged survivors seem doomed to encounter each other again and again for forever.

Conceptual Complexity and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds less like life and more like limbo, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These damaged people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has discussed about the impact of his individual experiences of abuse and he portrays with compassion the way his ensemble traverse this risky landscape, reaching out for treatments – isolation, icy sea dips, resolution or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "elemental" framing isn't terribly educational, while the rapid pace means the examination of sexual politics or online networks is primarily shallow. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly readable, victim-focused epic: a appreciated riposte to the usual preoccupation on authorities and offenders. The author illustrates how pain can permeate lives and generations, and how time and tenderness can soften its reverberations.