‘An epic.... Impactful and provocative’ The New York Times

‘An epic.... Impactful and provocative’ The New York Times

** ‘An almost note-perfect piece of first-person storytelling’** Guardian

** ‘Subtle, intelligent and humane’** Sunday Telegraph*____________** *

*John Boyne's acclaimed quartet of Water, Earth, Fire and Air * come together at last.

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 perceptions of who we are and what made us that way.