You weren’t proud of it.
Something you did in your past, yesterday, five years ago, a lifetime, you think of it sometimes and poke it like a bad tooth. You’re not proud of it but you paid for it anyhow, with time, money, apologies, or through a jury of your peers and you know this: as in the new novel, “The Elements” by John Boyne, the condemnation is harshest when the jury is you.
She changed her name again.
It was the first thing Willow Hale did when she rented the cottage on an island not far from Dublin. Isolation would help her sort things out, why her husband was in jail, why her daughter avoided her. Willow didn’t want anyone to recognize her as she came to terms with her role in what happened.
Though he was born with the skills of an athlete, Evan Keogh didn’t want to be a soccer star. He wanted to be an artist after he left the island, but he wasn’t talented enough. Coming to terms with that took awhile, and he sold his body to older men to get by in the meantime. When he finally accepted his athleticism, it was not because he loved the game. It was because he loved revenge but satisfying that itch would ruin his life.
Medical students were annoyances that Freya Petrus had to endure.
Though she was a highly-regarded burn surgeon, the truth was that she disliked humanity in general, perhaps because of childhood trauma she couldn’t forget. So, teeth gritted, no family, no friends, no close colleagues, she endured people, relying instead on a sordid hobby to soothe her memories.
Rebecca didn’t ask Aaron Umber to bring their son from Australia to Ireland, but there was a reason he did so, though Emmet balked at the trip. Emmet was at a tender age, not an adult but not a child anymore, either – 14, the same age as when something happened to Aaron that affected him forever.
Where to begin?
How ‘bout: “The Elements” is an incredible book.
How ‘bout: from the very beginning of it, you’ll be captured by what feels like The Twilight Zone without the paranormal; like reading the news, and wincing.
Here, the lush Irish background that author John Boyne so lovingly portrays is secondary to his characters, each of them flawed, maybe irretrievable so, as they wrestle with culpability and self-indulgent recognition of the past. You’ll dangle from a string as four intertwined tales eke out in a delicious tease, detonating a little TNT on a page every now and then to keep you feeling edgy and on the edge of your chair.
No spoilers here but the end of these four stories isn’t quite really an end, which will leave you flabbergasted, staring at the back cover for a few minutes after you close it.
Beware that there are adult themes inside this book, and they could potentially be triggering. If that’s not a worry, let yourself be stunned by “The Elements.”
Love it? Guilty.
“The Elements” by John Boyne
c.2025, Henry Holt $29.99 496 pages
