The Elements Analysis: Linked Stories of Trauma

Young Freya spends time with her distracted mother in Cornwall when she encounters 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they advise her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that ensue, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, a mix of anxiety and irritation passing across their faces as they ultimately free her from her makeshift coffin.

This could have served as the shocking main event of a novel, but it's only one of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four short novels – issued distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to discover peace in the current moment.

Debated Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's issuance has been clouded by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the longlist for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other contenders dropped out in dissent at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Conversation of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of major issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the effect of conventional and digital platforms, caregiver abandonment and sexual violence are all examined.

Four Narratives of Pain

• In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow relocates to a secluded Irish island after her husband is jailed for awful crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on trial as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a father flies to a funeral with his teenage son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's history.

Pain is accumulated upon trauma as wounded survivors seem destined to encounter each other again and again for eternity

Linked Narratives

Relationships multiply. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one narrative reappear in houses, pubs or legal settings in another.

These storylines may sound complicated, but the author knows how to power a narrative – his earlier successful Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been converted into numerous languages. His straightforward prose sparkles with suspenseful hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to toy with fire"; "the primary step I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are sketched in succinct, impactful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes ring with tragic power or perceptive humour: a boy is punched by his father after having an accident 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 transporting you completely into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an previous story a genuine thrill, for the opening times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is dulling, and at times nearly comic: suffering is layered with suffering, accident on accident in a dark farce in which damaged survivors seem doomed to meet each other again and again for forever.

Conceptual Complexity and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds different from life and more like purgatory, that is element of the author's point. These wounded people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and descend and may in turn hurt others. The author has spoken about the impact of his personal experiences of harm and he depicts with compassion the way his ensemble navigate this perilous landscape, extending for treatments – seclusion, frigid water immersion, resolution or refreshing honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "elemental" framing isn't terribly informative, while the quick pace means the examination of social issues or social media is primarily shallow. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a thoroughly engaging, survivor-centered saga: a valued riposte to the typical fixation on authorities and offenders. The author illustrates how suffering can run through lives and generations, and how years and care can quieten its reverberations.