🔗 Share this article The Elements Exploration: Interwoven Narratives of Suffering Young Freya stays with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that ensue, they violate her, then inter her while living, blend of nervousness and irritation darting across their faces as they ultimately release her from her improvised coffin. This may have functioned as the jarring focal point of a novel, but it's just one of multiple awful events in The Elements, which collects four novellas – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront historical pain and try to discover peace in the contemporary moment. Disputed Context and Subject Exploration The book's release has been marred by the inclusion of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other nominees dropped out in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been terminated. Discussion of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of major issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the effect of traditional and social media, caregiver abandonment and sexual violence are all investigated. Multiple Narratives of Suffering In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a remote Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes. In Earth, Evan is a athlete on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape. In Fire, the grown-up Freya manages revenge with her work as a surgeon. In Air, a dad flies to a funeral with his adolescent son, and considers how much to disclose about his family's past. Suffering is layered with suffering as wounded survivors seem fated to meet each other repeatedly for forever Related Stories Connections abound. We first meet 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, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one account reappear in cottages, pubs or judicial venues in another. These storylines may sound complicated, but the author is skilled at how to drive a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His straightforward prose bristles with gripping 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 change my name". Personality Development and Narrative Strength Characters are portrayed in concise, effective lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes resonate with tragic power or perceptive humour: a boy is hit by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange jabs over cups of watery tea. The author's knack of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an previous story a authentic frisson, for the first few times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times practically comic: pain is piled on pain, coincidence on chance in a dark farce in which wounded survivors seem fated to encounter each other continuously for forever. Thematic Depth and Final Evaluation If this sounds different from life and more like uncertainty, that is element of the author's message. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the influence of his individual experiences of harm and he portrays with compassion the way his characters traverse this perilous landscape, reaching out for solutions – solitude, cold ocean swims, resolution or refreshing honesty – that might let light in. The book's "elemental" structure isn't terribly informative, while the brisk pace means the exploration of social issues or online networks is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a thoroughly accessible, survivor-centered chronicle: a valued riposte to the typical fixation on investigators and criminals. The author shows how pain can affect lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can quieten its echoes.