The Elements

Human life is governed by the elements - water, earth, fire and air. They are fundamental to our existence. They sustain us, but they also challenge us. In The Elements , John Boyne has created a vivid kaleidoscope to reflect that contradiction: a quartet of intertwined narratives, each providing a different perspective on cause and effect from the points of view of the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator and the victim. From a mother on the run from her past, to a young football star on trial, a successful surgeon grappling with childhood trauma, and finally a father on a transformative journey with his son, the four strands weave together to form a tapestry of intersecting lives. Boyne''s most ambitious work yet, The Elements is both an engrossing drama and a moving examination of the fault lines inherent to human experience. In crisp, spellbinding prose, he navigates a complex subject with extraordinary empathy and unflinching honesty, at every step challenging us to confront our own conceptions of who we are and what made us that way.

Product details

• Authors: John Boyne
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 01.09.2025
• EAN: 9780857528872
• ISBN: 978-0-85752-887-2
• No. of pages: 512
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Historical fiction, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Family Life / Siblings, Family life fiction, Fiction: general and literary, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary