The Elements by John Boyne review – intertwined tales of trauma

<p>Four novellas about damaged people weighed down by the crimes they have suffered draw you efficiently in, but the cumulative effect is numbing</p><p>Twelve-year-old Freya is visiting her self-absorbed mother in Cornwall when she meets the 14-year-old twins. “The only thing better than knowing a secret,” they tell her, “is having one of your own.” In the weeks that follow, they will rape&nbsp;her, then bury her alive, a mix of anxiety and annoyance flitting across their faces as they eventually release her from her makeshift coffin.</p><p>This might have stood as the shocking centrepiece of a novel, but it’s just one of many terrible events in The Elements, which collects four novellas – published separately between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters negotiate past trauma and try to find peace in the present.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/06/the-elements-by-john-boyne-review-intertwined-tales-of-trauma">Continue reading...</a>