🔗 Share this article John Boyne's Latest Exploration: Interwoven Tales of Trauma Young Freya spends time with her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she encounters 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the time that come after, they sexually assault her, then bury her alive, blend of unease and irritation passing across their faces as they eventually release her from her temporary coffin. This might have stood as the jarring main event of a novel, but it's only one of numerous horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four novelettes – issued separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters confront past trauma and try to find peace in the present moment. Controversial Context and Subject Exploration The book's publication has been marred by the presence of Earth, the second novella, on the candidate list for a notable LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other contenders dropped out in protest at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been terminated. Conversation of trans rights is not present from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of major issues. Homophobia, the influence of mainstream and online outlets, family disregard and abuse are all examined. Four Narratives of Trauma In Water, a grieving woman named Willow moves to a isolated Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for awful crimes. In Earth, Evan is a soccer player on legal proceedings as an accomplice to rape. In Fire, the adult Freya manages revenge with her work as a surgeon. In Air, a dad journeys to a burial with his adolescent son, and considers how much to reveal about his family's past. Pain is layered with trauma as wounded survivors seem destined to encounter each other repeatedly for forever Interconnected Accounts Links multiply. We initially encounter Evan as a boy trying to flee 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 return in homes, bars or legal settings in another. These plot threads may sound tangled, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his prior popular Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His direct prose bristles 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 alter my name". Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Power Characters are sketched in brief, powerful lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at war with her mother. Some scenes resonate with melancholy power or observational humour: a boy is hit by his father after urinating at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap barbs over cups of weak tea. The author's ability of transporting you fully into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an earlier story a genuine frisson, for the first few times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is desensitizing, and at times practically comic: suffering is accumulated upon trauma, accident on chance in a bleak farce in which hurt survivors seem fated to encounter each other repeatedly for forever. Conceptual Depth and Concluding Assessment If this sounds not exactly life and resembling limbo, that is aspect of the author's point. These hurt people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, caught in routines of thought and behavior that churn and spiral and may in turn harm others. The author has spoken about the effect of his individual experiences of mistreatment and he describes with sympathy the way his ensemble negotiate this dangerous landscape, striving for treatments – seclusion, cold ocean swims, forgiveness or refreshing honesty – that might let light in. The book's "elemental" framing isn't terribly educational, while the rapid pace means the discussion of sexual politics or online networks is mostly superficial. But while The Elements is a defective work, it's also a thoroughly accessible, survivor-centered chronicle: a valued rebuttal to the common obsession on authorities and perpetrators. The author demonstrates how pain can affect lives and generations, and how years and tenderness can quieten its reverberations.