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Young Freya spends time with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that follow, they sexually assault her, then bury her alive, combination of anxiety and annoyance darting across their faces as they ultimately liberate her from her temporary coffin.

This may have functioned as the shocking focal point of a novel, but it's merely a single of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate historical pain and try to discover peace in the current moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been marred by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other contenders withdrew in protest at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Debate of LGBTQ+ matters is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of major issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the effect of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and sexual violence are all examined.

Distinct Accounts of Trauma

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow relocates to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on trial as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages retaliation with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a dad journeys to a memorial service with his teenage son, and wonders how much to divulge about his family's past.

Trauma is layered with trauma as damaged survivors seem destined to encounter each other again and again for all time

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Connections abound. We initially encounter 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, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one story reappear in homes, bars or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author is skilled at how to drive a narrative – his earlier successful Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been converted into dozens languages. His straightforward prose sparkles with gripping hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the first thing I do when I arrive on the island is alter my name".

Personality Development and Narrative Power

Characters are portrayed in concise, effective lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes resonate with tragic 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 exchange insults over cups of watery tea.

The author's ability of transporting you completely into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine frisson, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: suffering is layered with pain, accident on accident in a bleak farce in which wounded survivors seem destined to encounter each other repeatedly for all time.

Conceptual Complexity and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds not exactly life and resembling uncertainty, that is part of the author's point. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, trapped in cycles of thought and behavior that stir and descend and may in turn harm others. The author has discussed about the effect of his own experiences of abuse and he describes with compassion the way his characters navigate this perilous landscape, reaching out for remedies – isolation, icy sea dips, reconciliation or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "basic" framing isn't terribly educational, while the brisk pace means the discussion of gender dynamics or digital platforms is mainly superficial. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a thoroughly readable, trauma-oriented epic: a valued riposte to the usual preoccupation on authorities and criminals. The author illustrates how pain can affect lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can quieten its reverberations.