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Young Freya spends time with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she comes across teenage twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that follow, they will rape her, then bury her alive, blend of nervousness and annoyance flitting across their faces as they finally free her from her temporary coffin.

This could have served as the disturbing centrepiece of a novel, but it's only one of numerous awful events in The Elements, which collects four novellas – issued individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate historical pain and try to discover peace in the contemporary moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's release has been overshadowed by the addition of Earth, the second novella, on the preliminary list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other candidates withdrew in objection at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Debate of gender identity issues is absent from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of big issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the influence of mainstream and online outlets, parental neglect and sexual violence are all examined.

Distinct Stories of Pain

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow transfers to a secluded Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on court case as an accomplice to rape.
• In Fire, the adult Freya balances vengeance with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a father flies to a burial with his teenage son, and considers how much to disclose about his family's history.

Trauma is layered with suffering as damaged survivors seem fated to bump into each other repeatedly for eternity

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Connections proliferate. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who returns 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 judicial venues in another.

These narrative elements may sound tangled, but the author is skilled at how to propel a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been converted into dozens languages. His direct prose sparkles with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to play with fire"; "the initial action I do when I reach the island is alter my name".

Character Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are drawn in succinct, impactful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes ring with tragic power or perceptive humour: a boy is punched by his father after urinating at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade jabs over cups of weak tea.

The author's knack of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an prior story a authentic excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is dulling, and at times practically comic: suffering is layered with suffering, chance on accident in a bleak farce in which wounded survivors seem fated to bump into each other continuously for forever.

Thematic Complexity and Final Assessment

If this sounds not exactly life and closer to uncertainty, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These hurt people are oppressed by the crimes they have suffered, stuck in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn hurt others. The author has discussed about the influence of his personal experiences of abuse and he describes with understanding the way his characters navigate this perilous landscape, striving for treatments – isolation, icy sea dips, resolution or invigorating honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "basic" framing isn't terribly educational, while the brisk pace means the exploration of gender dynamics or social media is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely readable, trauma-oriented chronicle: a appreciated response to the usual preoccupation on detectives and perpetrators. The author shows how trauma can run through lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can silence its echoes.