Twelve-year-old Freya spends time with her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they advise her, "is having one of your own." In the time that ensue, they will rape her, then inter her while living, blend of unease and irritation flitting across their faces as they finally free her from her makeshift coffin.
This could have served as the jarring focal point of a novel, but it's merely a single of multiple awful events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – issued individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate past trauma and try to achieve peace in the current moment.
Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration
The book's issuance has been overshadowed by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other candidates withdrew in objection at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been called off.
Discussion of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of big issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the effect of traditional and social media, caregiver abandonment and abuse are all investigated.
Four Stories of Trauma
- In Water, a mourning woman named Willow transfers to a remote Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
- In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape.
- In Fire, the adult Freya balances vengeance with her work as a doctor.
- In Air, a father travels to a funeral with his young son, and considers how much to disclose about his family's background.
Pain is layered with trauma as damaged survivors seem destined to meet each other again and again for eternity
Related Narratives
Relationships proliferate. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to leave 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. Minor characters from one story resurface in homes, pubs or courtrooms in another.
These storylines may sound tangled, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his earlier popular Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been rendered into many languages. His straightforward prose shines with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to experiment with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is change my name".
Personality Portrayal and Narrative Power
Characters are sketched in concise, impactful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes resonate with melancholy power or perceptive humour: a boy is struck by his father after urinating at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange insults over cups of watery tea.
The author's ability of bringing you completely into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic excitement, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times almost comic: pain is piled on suffering, chance on coincidence in a grim farce in which hurt survivors seem destined to meet each other repeatedly for all time.
Conceptual Depth and Final Assessment
If this sounds not exactly life and more like purgatory, that is part of the author's point. These damaged people are oppressed by the crimes they have endured, trapped in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the influence of his own experiences of harm and he depicts with understanding the way his ensemble negotiate this perilous landscape, reaching out for remedies – isolation, frigid water immersion, resolution or bracing honesty – that might bring illumination.
The book's "basic" structure isn't particularly instructive, while the rapid pace means the discussion of social issues or digital platforms is mostly shallow. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a entirely accessible, victim-focused chronicle: a welcome response to the common fixation on detectives and criminals. The author illustrates how pain can affect lives and generations, and how time and care can quieten its aftereffects.
