A New Collection Review: Interconnected Narratives of Suffering

Young Freya is visiting her distracted mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they inform her, "is having one of your own." In the time that ensue, they sexually assault her, then bury her alive, combination of nervousness and irritation darting across their faces as they finally liberate her from her improvised coffin.

This could have served as the jarring centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of multiple awful events in The Elements, which gathers four short novels – published individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the current moment.

Disputed Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's issuance has been clouded by the inclusion of Earth, the second novella, on the candidate list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, most other candidates pulled out in protest at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Debate of gender identity issues is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the impact of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and sexual violence are all examined.

Four Accounts of Suffering

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

Trauma is layered with pain as wounded survivors seem destined to bump into each other continuously for all time

Related Accounts

Links abound. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's group contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, collaborates with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one account resurface in homes, taverns or courtrooms in another.

These plot threads may sound complicated, but the author knows how to power a narrative – his earlier popular Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His businesslike prose bristles with suspenseful hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should be wiser than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I arrive on the island is modify my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Power

Characters are drawn in concise, powerful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes echo with sad power or observational humour: a boy is struck by his father after having an accident at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap insults over cups of weak tea.

The author's talent of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the reappearance of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine thrill, for the first few times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is dulling, and at times almost comic: suffering is piled on suffering, chance on accident in a grim farce in which hurt survivors seem fated to encounter each other repeatedly for eternity.

Thematic Depth and Concluding Assessment

If this sounds less like life and resembling uncertainty, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These wounded people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, caught in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn hurt others. The author has discussed about the impact of his own experiences of harm and he describes with understanding the way his cast navigate this perilous landscape, striving for treatments – seclusion, cold ocean swims, reconciliation or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't extremely informative, while the rapid pace means the exploration of social issues or digital platforms is mostly shallow. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a thoroughly readable, trauma-oriented epic: a appreciated riposte to the common preoccupation on investigators and perpetrators. The author demonstrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can quieten its aftereffects.