Four people, strangers, are connected via serial pedophiles, or as the book jacket of The Elements by John Boyne suggests: an enabler, an accomplice, a perpetrator and the victim. In this book and in real life, such crimes reverberate for years, even after imprisonment or death. 

The use of first-person narratives ensures surprises; life stories unfold and connections emerge along with flaws, regrets, excuses and pain. As one character notes, “from the moment we arrive on the planet the universe...