🔗 Share this article The Elements Exploration: Linked Stories of Pain Twelve-year-old Freya stays with her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that ensue, they violate her, then entomb her breathing, combination of anxiety and irritation flitting across their faces as they finally release her from her temporary coffin. This could have served as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it's only one of numerous terrible events in The Elements, which collects four novellas – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the contemporary moment. Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration The book's issuance has been clouded by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other nominees pulled out in objection at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled. Discussion of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the impact of conventional and digital platforms, family disregard and sexual violence are all examined. Four Narratives of Pain In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow relocates to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for terrible crimes. In Earth, Evan is a athlete on trial as an participant to rape. In Fire, the mature Freya manages vengeance with her work as a doctor. In Air, a father travels to a funeral with his teenage son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's background. Suffering is accumulated upon trauma as hurt survivors seem doomed to encounter each other repeatedly for all time Related Narratives Connections abound. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one narrative return in homes, taverns or judicial venues in another. These storylines may sound complex, but the author understands how to power a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into many languages. His businesslike prose bristles with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the first thing I do when I reach the island is modify my name". Character Development and Narrative Strength Characters are portrayed in concise, impactful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes resonate with sad power or insightful humour: a boy is punched by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap barbs over cups of weak tea. The author's knack of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic frisson, for the first few times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: pain is layered with trauma, chance on accident in a bleak farce in which wounded survivors seem doomed to meet each other repeatedly for forever. Conceptual Depth and Final Evaluation If this sounds less like life and more like limbo, that is element of the author's point. These wounded people are oppressed by the crimes they have experienced, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn damage others. The author has discussed about the impact of his own experiences of abuse and he portrays with sympathy the way his cast negotiate this perilous landscape, extending for solutions – isolation, icy sea dips, forgiveness or bracing honesty – that might provide clarity. The book's "elemental" concept isn't terribly instructive, while the rapid pace means the exploration of social issues or online networks is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a entirely accessible, trauma-oriented chronicle: a welcome rebuttal to the typical fixation on investigators and criminals. The author demonstrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how years and tenderness can silence its aftereffects.