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Young Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that ensue, they will rape her, then entomb her breathing, blend of anxiety and irritation passing across their faces as they eventually liberate her from her temporary coffin.

This might have stood as the jarring centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four short novels – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate past trauma and try to find peace in the current moment.

Controversial Context and Subject Exploration

The book's issuance has been clouded by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders pulled out in protest at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Discussion of trans rights is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of big issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the effect of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and assault are all examined.

Distinct Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on trial as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya juggles revenge with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a parent travels to a memorial service with his teenage son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's background.

Pain is layered with pain as hurt survivors seem doomed to encounter each other again and again for all time

Interconnected Stories

Connections proliferate. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one story return in cottages, bars or judicial venues in another.

These plot threads may sound tangled, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his previous acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been rendered into numerous languages. His straightforward prose bristles with gripping hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to toy with fire"; "the first thing I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Character Development and Narrative Power

Characters are sketched in concise, effective lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes resonate with sad power or perceptive humour: a boy is hit by his father after having an accident at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap insults over cups of diluted tea.

The author's talent of bringing you wholeheartedly 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 collective effect of it all is dulling, and at times nearly comic: trauma is accumulated upon pain, chance on coincidence in a bleak farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to encounter each other continuously for forever.

Conceptual Depth and Final Evaluation

If this sounds different from life and closer to limbo, that is part of the author's point. These hurt people are burdened by the crimes they have experienced, caught in routines of thought and behavior that stir and plunge and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the effect of his individual experiences of mistreatment and he depicts with compassion the way his ensemble negotiate this perilous landscape, reaching out for remedies – seclusion, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or bracing honesty – that might bring illumination.

The book's "elemental" structure isn't particularly informative, 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 completely accessible, victim-focused saga: a valued riposte to the typical obsession on authorities and criminals. The author illustrates how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can silence its echoes.