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Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her distracted mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that ensue, they sexually assault her, then bury her alive, combination of anxiety and irritation flitting across their faces as they ultimately release her from her makeshift coffin.

This may have functioned as the disturbing main event of a novel, but it's only one of many terrible events in The Elements, which collects four short novels – published distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate past trauma and try to achieve peace in the present moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's release has been clouded by the presence of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders pulled out in protest at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Discussion of LGBTQ+ matters is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of traditional and social media, family disregard and assault are all investigated.

Four Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow transfers to a secluded Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on court case as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a dad travels to a funeral with his adolescent son, and wonders how much to divulge about his family's past.

Trauma is layered with pain as wounded survivors seem fated to meet each other repeatedly for all time

Interconnected Stories

Links proliferate. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to leave 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. Secondary characters from one account return in cottages, pubs or judicial venues in another.

These plot threads may sound tangled, but the author is skilled at how to drive a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His straightforward prose shines with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is change my name".

Character Development and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in succinct, impactful lines: the caring 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 punched by his father after having an accident at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap insults over cups of watery tea.

The author's talent of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an previous story a authentic frisson, for the opening times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is dulling, and at times practically comic: pain is layered with trauma, chance on accident in a grim farce in which damaged survivors seem doomed to encounter each other again and again for all time.

Conceptual Complexity and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds different from life and resembling purgatory, that is part of the author's thesis. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have suffered, caught in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and descend and may in turn damage others. The author has spoken about the effect of his own experiences of abuse and he describes with compassion the way his ensemble traverse this perilous landscape, reaching out for solutions – seclusion, cold ocean swims, resolution or bracing honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "basic" concept isn't particularly informative, while the rapid pace means the exploration of social issues or digital platforms is mainly superficial. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a thoroughly engaging, survivor-centered saga: a welcome riposte to the common fixation on authorities and offenders. The author shows how pain can affect lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can silence its aftereffects.