🔗 Share this article A New Collection Exploration: Interwoven Narratives of Suffering Young Freya stays with her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she comes across teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that ensue, they violate her, then bury her alive, blend of nervousness and irritation flitting across their faces as they finally release her from her makeshift coffin. This might have stood as the disturbing centrepiece of a novel, but it's only one of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – published distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to achieve peace in the contemporary moment. Controversial Context and Subject Exploration The book's issuance has been marred by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders pulled out in protest at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled. Conversation of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author touches on plenty of big issues. LGBTQ+ discrimination, the effect of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and abuse are all investigated. Four Narratives of Suffering In Water, a mourning woman named Willow transfers 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 mature Freya juggles vengeance with her work as a doctor. In Air, a father journeys to a memorial service with his young son, and wonders how much to reveal about his family's history. Trauma is layered with suffering as hurt survivors seem destined to meet each other continuously for all time Linked Narratives Connections multiply. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to leave 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. Secondary characters from one story return in homes, taverns or legal settings in another. These storylines may sound tangled, but the author knows how to propel a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been rendered into numerous languages. His direct prose sparkles with thriller-ish hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the first thing I do when I come to the island is change my name". Personality Development and Narrative Strength Characters are portrayed in succinct, powerful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with melancholy power or perceptive humour: a boy is hit by his father after urinating at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of watery tea. The author's ability of carrying you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an prior story a real frisson, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times practically comic: pain is accumulated upon pain, accident on accident in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem destined to meet each other repeatedly for all time. Conceptual Complexity and Concluding Assessment If this sounds less like life and resembling uncertainty, that is element of the author's thesis. These hurt people are oppressed by the crimes they have endured, caught in patterns of thought and behavior that churn and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has talked about the effect of his own experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with sympathy the way his characters traverse this dangerous landscape, reaching out for remedies – solitude, icy sea dips, forgiveness or refreshing honesty – that might let light in. The book's "elemental" structure isn't extremely educational, while the brisk pace means the exploration of social issues or social media is mainly shallow. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a completely engaging, survivor-centered epic: a valued rebuttal to the usual fixation on investigators and criminals. The author demonstrates how suffering can permeate lives and generations, and how years and compassion can soften its reverberations.