The Elements: A Novel

by John Boyne

496 pages, Paperback

Expected publication September 8, 2026

About the author

I was born in Dublin, Ireland, and studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. In 2015, I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by UEA.

I’ve published 14 novels for adults, 6 novels for younger readers, and a short story collection. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas was a New York Times no.1 Bestseller and was adapted for a feature film, a play, a ballet and an opera, selling around 11 million copies worldwide.

Among my most popular books are The Heart’s Invisible Furies, A Ladder to the Sky and My Brother’s Name is Jessica.

I’m also a regular book reviewer for The Irish Times.

In 2012, I was awarded the Hennessy Literary ‘Hall of Fame’ Award for my body of work. I’ve also won 4 Irish Book Awards, and many international literary awards, including the Que Leer Award for Novel of the Year in Spain and the Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize in Germany. In 2015, I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia.

My novels are published in 58 languages.

My 14th adult novel, ALL THE BROKEN PLACES, a sequel and companion novel to THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, will be published in the UK on September 15th 2022, in the US and Canada on November 29th, and in many foreign language editions in late 2022 and 2023.

Reviews

[missy e and the big reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tragic, sad and violating is how i would describe this book. Interesting how the author tied all the different stories to the island but some of them were really dark.

[Chrisreadsbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book- 5 stars for sure. John Boyne is a master at telling a sweeping novel, with characters that, while not exactly likeable, are totally human. The subject matter of this book is tough - child sexual abuse - but is handled with care by the author. So much guilt, trauma and pain is endured by the 4 main protagonists in the book - my heart ached for all of them, even the ones portrayed as a monsters. It was interesting to read that this book was published in 4 separate volumes, covering the 4 main stories. I don’t think I could have ever read them as stand alone books, the stories are interconnected, each one leading in an important way to the next.
(As an an aside - this book hasn’t been published in the US yet so it’s not exactly straightforward to rate and review. I guess GoodReads believes people in the US are the only ones using it? An issue with this site and maybe another reason to move to another.)

[Janet Praxel]

The book was composed of three different stories snout extremely difficult circumstances of three different young people whose circumstances rule their lives for many years. The three people get to know one another and by the third stories their individual stories intertwine and their past hurts direct much of their futures. This is confusing but I don’t want to give anything away. At times I didn’t like the book. It was slow moving and quite sad but the ending made it all good. There is hope and healing thst I didn’t expect. I give books I will remember in a year or more. This story I won’t forget

[Angevino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four multi-layered stories that connect through a different perspective of a crime - the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator, and the victim. Grief, horror, heartache, redemption, and hope. Great read.