John Boyne's Latest Analysis: Linked Tales of Suffering
Young Freya stays with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets 14-year-old twins. "Nothing better than knowing a secret," they tell her, "is having one of your own." In the time that ensue, they will rape her, then inter her while living, a mix of nervousness and irritation darting across their faces as they finally free her from her temporary coffin.
This could have served as the shocking main event of a novel, but it's just one of numerous terrible events in The Elements, which gathers four novelettes – issued individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate historical pain and try to achieve peace in the contemporary moment.
Disputed Context and Subject Exploration
The book's issuance has been clouded by the addition of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a significant LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other nominees withdrew in protest at the author's controversial views – and this year's prize has now been called off.
Discussion of LGBTQ+ matters is absent from The Elements, although the author explores plenty of significant issues. Anti-gay prejudice, the influence of conventional and digital platforms, parental neglect and sexual violence are all investigated.
Multiple Narratives of Pain
- In Water, a sorrowful woman named Willow moves to a isolated Irish island after her husband is jailed for terrible crimes.
- In Earth, Evan is a footballer on trial as an participant to rape.
- In Fire, the mature Freya balances revenge with her work as a medical professional.
- In Air, a father flies to a funeral with his teenage son, and considers how much to disclose about his family's background.
Suffering is piled on pain as damaged survivors seem doomed to encounter each other repeatedly for eternity
Related Accounts
Links multiply. We originally see Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's panel 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 narrative return in houses, bars or judicial venues in another.
These plot threads may sound complex, but the author knows how to power a narrative – his previous acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold many copies, and he has been rendered into many languages. His direct prose sparkles 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 come to the island is modify my name".
Personality Portrayal and Narrative Strength
Characters are drawn in succinct, powerful lines: the caring Nigerian priest, the troubled pub landlord, the daughter at conflict with her mother. Some scenes echo with melancholy power or observational humour: a boy is punched by his father after urinating at a football match; a narrow-minded island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour trade barbs over cups of weak tea.
The author's knack of carrying you completely into each narrative gives the comeback of a character or plot strand from an prior story a genuine excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the cumulative effect of it all is dulling, and at times almost comic: pain is accumulated upon trauma, accident on accident in a dark farce in which hurt survivors seem doomed to bump into each other again and again for all time.
Conceptual Depth 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 weighed down by the crimes they have experienced, stuck in cycles of thought and behavior that churn and spiral and may in turn damage others. The author has spoken about the effect of his individual experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with sympathy the way his ensemble navigate this dangerous landscape, striving for treatments – solitude, icy sea dips, resolution or bracing honesty – that might let light in.
The book's "fundamental" concept isn't terribly educational, while the quick pace means the discussion of gender dynamics or online networks is mostly shallow. But while The Elements is a imperfect work, it's also a thoroughly accessible, victim-focused saga: a valued rebuttal to the usual fixation on authorities and offenders. The author demonstrates how trauma can permeate lives and generations, and how time and compassion can quieten its echoes.