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Young Freya stays with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that follow, they will rape her, then bury her alive, blend of anxiety and annoyance darting across their faces as they ultimately release her from her makeshift coffin.

This might have stood as the shocking focal point of a novel, but it's only one of multiple awful events in The Elements, which collects four short novels – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to discover peace in the contemporary moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been clouded by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders pulled out in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Conversation of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of big issues. Homophobia, the influence of conventional and digital platforms, family disregard and abuse are all examined.

Four Stories of Pain

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow transfers to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on court case as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya manages retaliation with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a parent travels to a memorial service with his young son, and wonders how much to disclose about his family's background.

Trauma is layered with trauma as hurt survivors seem destined to encounter each other repeatedly for all time

Interconnected Stories

Links abound. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one account resurface in homes, taverns or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound complex, but the author is skilled at how to drive a narrative – his prior popular Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His businesslike prose bristles with thriller-ish hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is modify my name".

Personality Portrayal and Narrative Power

Characters are drawn in succinct, impactful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with tragic power or observational humour: a boy is hit by his father after urinating at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's talent of transporting you completely into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an previous story a genuine thrill, for the first few times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: trauma is accumulated upon trauma, accident on chance in a grim farce in which wounded survivors seem fated to meet each other repeatedly for forever.

Thematic Complexity and Final Assessment

If this sounds different from life and resembling purgatory, that is element of the author's message. These damaged people are weighed down by the crimes they have suffered, caught in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and spiral and may in turn damage others. The author has spoken about the effect of his individual experiences of mistreatment and he depicts with understanding the way his ensemble navigate this dangerous landscape, striving for remedies – solitude, icy sea dips, forgiveness or invigorating honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "elemental" concept isn't terribly instructive, while the quick pace means the discussion of sexual politics or online networks is primarily shallow. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a thoroughly readable, survivor-centered saga: a valued response to the common fixation on investigators and offenders. The author illustrates how pain can run through lives and generations, and how years and compassion can quieten its reverberations.