🔗 Share this article A New Collection Review: Interconnected Tales of Pain Young Freya spends time with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the days that ensue, they will rape her, then entomb her breathing, a mix of nervousness and frustration darting across their faces as they finally liberate her from her temporary coffin. This might have stood as the disturbing main event of a novel, but it's only one of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which gathers four novelettes – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront historical pain and try to find peace in the current moment. Disputed Context and Subject Exploration The book's release has been clouded by the presence of Earth, the second novella, on the longlist for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other candidates pulled out in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been called off. Conversation of gender identity issues is absent from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of big issues. Homophobia, the effect of mainstream and online outlets, caregiver abandonment and assault are all examined. Distinct Narratives of Trauma In Water, a mourning woman named Willow moves to a remote Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for terrible crimes. In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an accessory to rape. In Fire, the mature Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a doctor. In Air, a parent journeys to a funeral with his adolescent son, and ponders how much to divulge about his family's background. Suffering is layered with pain as wounded survivors seem doomed to meet each other repeatedly for all time Interconnected Stories Links abound. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to escape the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one account return in cottages, bars or judicial venues in another. These plot threads may sound tangled, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been rendered into numerous languages. His businesslike prose bristles 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 reach the island is alter my name". Character Portrayal and Storytelling Power Characters are portrayed in brief, effective lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes echo with melancholy power or insightful humour: a boy is struck by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of weak tea. The author's ability of bringing you fully into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a authentic excitement, for the first few times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is numbing, and at times nearly comic: suffering is layered with trauma, coincidence on accident in a grim farce in which damaged survivors seem fated to encounter each other repeatedly for eternity. Thematic Depth and Concluding Evaluation If this sounds less like life and closer to limbo, that is part of the author's message. These wounded people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, trapped in patterns of thought and behavior that stir and plunge and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the effect of his personal experiences of harm and he depicts with compassion the way his characters traverse this risky landscape, reaching out for treatments – isolation, frigid water immersion, resolution or bracing honesty – that might let light in. The book's "basic" framing isn't particularly educational, while the brisk pace means the exploration of social issues or online networks is mainly superficial. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly accessible, survivor-centered epic: a welcome riposte to the typical obsession on detectives and criminals. The author demonstrates how pain can run through lives and generations, and how time and tenderness can quieten its echoes.