🔗 Share this article John Boyne's Latest Analysis: Linked Tales of Trauma Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "The only thing better than knowing a secret," they inform her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the time that come after, they sexually assault her, then bury her alive, combination of anxiety and irritation flitting across their faces as they eventually release her from her temporary coffin. This may have functioned as the disturbing centrepiece of a novel, but it's only one of multiple terrible events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – issued distinctly between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate historical pain and try to achieve peace in the current moment. Controversial Context and Subject Exploration The book's issuance has been marred by the presence of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other contenders pulled out in protest at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been cancelled. Conversation of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of significant issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the effect of conventional and digital platforms, caregiver abandonment and assault are all explored. Multiple Accounts of Pain In Water, a mourning woman named Willow transfers to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for awful crimes. In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on court case as an accessory to rape. In Fire, the grown-up Freya juggles vengeance with her work as a doctor. In Air, a parent journeys to a burial with his teenage son, and wonders how much to divulge about his family's background. Trauma is piled on pain as hurt survivors seem doomed to encounter each other again and again for forever Linked Narratives Links multiply. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's jury contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, partners with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one account return in homes, pubs or courtrooms in another. These plot threads may sound complex, but the author understands how to drive a narrative – his previous popular Holocaust drama has sold numerous units, and he has been translated into many languages. His businesslike prose sparkles with thriller-ish hooks: "ultimately, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to experiment with fire"; "the primary step I do when I come to the island is change my name". Personality Portrayal and Narrative Power Characters are portrayed in concise, impactful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with sad power or observational humour: a boy is punched by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap insults over cups of diluted tea. The author's knack of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine excitement, for the opening times at least. Yet the aggregate effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: trauma is layered with suffering, coincidence on accident in a grim farce in which damaged survivors seem doomed to meet each other continuously for eternity. Conceptual Depth and Concluding Assessment If this sounds not exactly life and closer to limbo, that is part of the author's message. These hurt people are burdened by the crimes they have experienced, caught in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has discussed about the influence of his personal experiences of harm and he depicts with sympathy the way his characters traverse this perilous landscape, reaching out for treatments – solitude, cold ocean swims, resolution or invigorating honesty – that might let light in. The book's "basic" framing isn't particularly instructive, while the rapid pace means the discussion of sexual politics or digital platforms is mainly superficial. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly readable, survivor-centered epic: a appreciated riposte to the usual preoccupation on investigators and offenders. The author illustrates how suffering can affect lives and generations, and how years and tenderness can soften its reverberations.