The Elements Review: Interwoven Tales of Suffering

Twelve-year-old Freya stays with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she comes across 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that come after, they sexually assault 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 focal point of a novel, but it's merely a single of many awful events in The Elements, which assembles four novellas – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate historical pain and try to find peace in the present moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's release has been clouded by the presence of Earth, the second novella, on the candidate list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders pulled out in protest at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Debate of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of big issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the effect of traditional and social media, family disregard and assault are all explored.

Four Stories of Suffering

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow moves to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on court case as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a medical professional.
• In Air, a father journeys to a memorial service with his young son, and wonders how much to disclose about his family's past.

Suffering is piled on trauma as damaged survivors seem fated to meet each other repeatedly for all time

Related Narratives

Relationships multiply. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to leave 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. Supporting characters from one narrative resurface in cottages, pubs or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound tangled, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his earlier acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been rendered into dozens languages. His businesslike prose shines with suspenseful hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to experiment with fire"; "the first thing I do when I come to the island is modify my name".

Personality Portrayal and Narrative Strength

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

The author's knack of transporting you fully into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times nearly comic: pain is piled on pain, chance on coincidence in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to meet each other continuously for forever.

Thematic Depth and Final Evaluation

If this sounds less like life and closer to limbo, that is element of the author's point. These damaged people are burdened by the crimes they have experienced, trapped in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn harm others. The author has talked about the influence of his personal experiences of mistreatment and he depicts with understanding the way his ensemble negotiate this perilous landscape, extending for remedies – solitude, cold ocean swims, reconciliation or refreshing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "elemental" framing isn't extremely instructive, while the brisk pace means the examination of gender dynamics or online networks is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a completely accessible, trauma-oriented epic: a appreciated response to the common fixation on authorities and offenders. The author illustrates how pain can run through lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can soften its echoes.