A New Collection Analysis: Linked Narratives of Trauma

Young Freya is visiting her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she comes across teenage twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they inform her, "is having one of your own." In the weeks that come after, they violate her, then bury her alive, combination of anxiety and frustration darting across their faces as they finally release her from her improvised coffin.

This might have stood as the jarring centrepiece of a novel, but it's just one of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – released separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the present moment.

Controversial Context and Thematic Exploration

The book's issuance has been clouded by the inclusion of Earth, the second novella, on the preliminary list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other candidates withdrew in protest at the author's debated views – and this year's prize has now been called off.

Debate of gender identity issues is absent from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of big issues. Homophobia, the impact of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and assault are all explored.

Four Narratives of Suffering

• In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a isolated Irish island after her husband is imprisoned for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a athlete on court case as an accessory to rape.
• In Fire, the mature Freya juggles retaliation with her work as a surgeon.
• In Air, a father flies to a funeral with his adolescent son, and wonders how much to disclose about his family's history.

Suffering is piled on pain as hurt survivors seem doomed to meet each other continuously for forever

Linked Accounts

Links multiply. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who returns in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Minor characters from one narrative resurface in cottages, taverns or legal settings in another.

These narrative elements may sound complicated, but the author is skilled at how to power a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His straightforward prose shines with gripping hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should know better than to experiment with fire"; "the initial action I do when I arrive on the island is alter my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are drawn in brief, impactful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or insightful humour: a boy is punched by his father after having an accident at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap barbs over cups of weak tea.

The author's knack of bringing you wholeheartedly into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an prior story a authentic thrill, for the first few times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is numbing, and at times practically comic: trauma is accumulated upon suffering, coincidence on coincidence in a grim farce in which hurt survivors seem destined to bump into each other repeatedly for eternity.

Thematic Complexity and Final Assessment

If this sounds different from life and closer to limbo, that is aspect of the author's thesis. These hurt people are oppressed by the crimes they have suffered, caught in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn hurt others. The author has spoken about the influence of his individual experiences of harm and he portrays with sympathy the way his ensemble negotiate this dangerous landscape, extending for remedies – seclusion, icy sea dips, resolution or invigorating honesty – that might provide clarity.

The book's "fundamental" concept isn't extremely educational, while the rapid pace means the exploration of gender dynamics or social media is mainly superficial. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a entirely accessible, survivor-centered chronicle: a appreciated response to the typical preoccupation on authorities and criminals. The author shows how trauma can run through lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can quieten its aftereffects.