🔗 Share this article John Boyne's Latest Exploration: Interconnected Stories of Suffering Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her distracted mother in Cornwall when she encounters teenage twins. "Nothing better than being aware of a secret," they inform her, "is having one of your own." In the days that come after, they will rape her, then inter her while living, blend of nervousness and annoyance passing across their faces as they finally release her from her improvised coffin. This could have served as the disturbing centrepiece of a novel, but it's only one of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which assembles four short novels – released individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the contemporary moment. Debated Context and Subject Exploration The book's publication has been overshadowed by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the preliminary list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, nearly all other nominees dropped out in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been terminated. Conversation of LGBTQ+ matters is missing from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of big issues. Homophobia, the impact of mainstream and online outlets, parental neglect and abuse are all explored. Four Stories of Pain In Water, a mourning woman named Willow relocates to a isolated Irish island after her husband is jailed for horrific crimes. In Earth, Evan is a footballer on trial as an accessory to rape. In Fire, the adult Freya manages revenge with her work as a surgeon. In Air, a father journeys to a burial with his adolescent son, and ponders how much to reveal about his family's past. Pain is layered with pain as wounded survivors seem fated to bump into each other continuously for forever Interconnected Stories Relationships abound. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to leave the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who reappears in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Secondary characters from one narrative resurface in houses, pubs or courtrooms in another. These plot threads may sound tangled, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his previous successful Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been rendered into numerous languages. His straightforward prose shines with suspenseful hooks: "after all, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I reach the island is change my name". Character Portrayal and Storytelling Strength Characters are sketched in brief, impactful lines: the empathetic Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes ring with melancholy power or observational humour: a boy is struck by his father after urinating at a football match; a biased island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour exchange barbs over cups of diluted tea. The author's ability of carrying you fully into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an prior 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 dark farce in which wounded survivors seem destined to encounter each other continuously for eternity. Conceptual Complexity and Concluding Assessment If this sounds not exactly life and closer to limbo, that is element of the author's message. These hurt people are weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, stuck in routines of thought and behavior that agitate and plunge and may in turn damage others. The author has spoken about the influence of his individual experiences of harm and he portrays with understanding the way his characters navigate this dangerous landscape, striving for treatments – seclusion, icy sea dips, forgiveness or refreshing honesty – that might provide clarity. The book's "elemental" concept isn't extremely educational, while the brisk pace means the discussion of sexual politics or online networks is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a thoroughly accessible, victim-focused chronicle: a welcome riposte to the usual fixation on authorities and criminals. The author demonstrates how pain can affect lives and generations, and how duration and tenderness can quieten its aftereffects.