🔗 Share this article The Elements Review: Interconnected Stories of Trauma Young Freya stays with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that follow, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, combination of unease and annoyance passing across their faces as they ultimately liberate her from her temporary coffin. This could have served as the shocking focal point of a novel, but it's only one of multiple terrible events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – published distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate previous suffering and try to discover peace in the current moment. Controversial Context and Subject Exploration The book's release has been overshadowed by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a significant 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 terminated. Discussion of gender identity issues is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of major issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of conventional and digital platforms, caregiver abandonment and abuse are all investigated. Four Narratives of Pain In Water, a grieving woman named Willow moves to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for awful crimes. In Earth, Evan is a footballer on trial as an participant to rape. In Fire, the adult Freya manages revenge with her work as a surgeon. In Air, a dad flies to a funeral with his adolescent son, and ponders how much to reveal about his family's background. Pain is accumulated upon trauma as damaged survivors seem destined to meet each other repeatedly for eternity Linked Narratives Connections proliferate. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one narrative reappear in cottages, taverns or legal settings in another. These plot threads may sound complicated, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been converted into many languages. His direct prose bristles with gripping hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to play with fire"; "the first thing I do when I come to the island is alter my name". Personality Portrayal and Narrative Strength Characters are drawn in brief, effective lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with melancholy power or insightful humour: a boy is struck by his father after urinating at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of diluted tea. The author's talent of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine frisson, for the first few times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: trauma is layered with suffering, chance on accident in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to meet each other repeatedly for eternity. Conceptual Depth and Concluding Evaluation If this sounds different from life and closer to purgatory, that is part of the author's thesis. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have suffered, stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn hurt others. The author has discussed about the influence of his own experiences of mistreatment and he depicts with compassion the way his ensemble traverse this perilous landscape, reaching out for treatments – isolation, frigid water immersion, reconciliation or invigorating honesty – that might let light in. The book's "fundamental" framing isn't terribly educational, while the rapid pace means the examination of sexual politics or online networks is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly engaging, survivor-centered epic: a appreciated response to the common preoccupation on authorities and offenders. The author illustrates how pain can permeate lives and generations, and how time and compassion can silence its aftereffects.