This is the second part of Irish author John Boyne’s “The Elements” Quartet.  The first part “Water” made it into my Top 10 Books of 2023 and had me tearing up the rule book as it certainly shifted my feelings about short novels/novellas as it was a near-perfect example of the form, contained very nicely within its 176 pages.  It’s done well commercially for the author in hardback which is a testament to his commercial power as faced with a table of new hardback books in a shop I’d be tempted to go with something thicker to get more for my money, but wherever I see it displayed it shines out at me and is obviously being chosen by many readers.

But could he do it again?  There’s a bit of a niggling inside me to consider it a 5* book before even starting it as I’ve awarded this author the top rating 6 times from the 9 books of his I’ve read.  He’s already at the top of my 5* rating league but even as I’m writing this I’m not 100% positive of which way I’m going to go.

We’ve met main character Evan Keogh before.  In “Water” he is the teenage boy on the unspecified island off the West Coast of Ireland who is very talented at football but would prefer to be an artist.  Here we find him in London, a Champions League footballer embroiled in a scandal and facing criminal proceedings.  His entry into professional football is unusual and he doesn’t fit into that world.  We switch, in this first-person narrative, between his present and past.  A major theme of the novel is consent, a topic which has already seen me giving 5* to Ela Lee’s “Jaded” (2024) this year and a book I can never get out of my mind is Kia Abdullah’s legal thriller “Truth Be Told” (2020) yet here John Boyne certainly offers fresh perspectives.

I couldn’t put this down, which you might think is not saying a great deal as it is only 176 pages (the same length as “Water”) but, on reflection, I don’t think it is as perfectly formed as its predecessor, which felt so complete.  Here, I found myself yearning for another 200 or so pages so that scenes which felt a little skimmed over could really breathe and that would have made this something really extraordinary.  I have to balance that feeling with the fact that the author has certainly left me wanting more- which shifts him back up into my five star criteria.

My only niggle concerns something I mentioned in my review of “Water” where I felt that the crafting of it “belies one of my issues with novellas in that despite their brevity they can feel drawn out”.  Here, there’s a character who comes back into Evan’s life in a scene which didn’t blend in so well and felt like a hint of padding within its limited pages.  Maybe this character had a significance I didn’t pick up on or may reappear in one of the later works.

And what of the element itself?  Earth is perhaps harder to pin down than water which was everywhere in the island setting of its novel but here it is used very well as the pull of Ireland, the home soil, its physical presence on the football pitch, the smothering sensation Evan experiences at times, as in being buried alive and in its grubbiness which dominates the whole piece, as it is a slightly queasy read throughout.

It may not be as well crafted as “Water” but, boy, is it compelling and offers a high-quality reading experience.  Is it up there with the very best of John Boyne’s five star works?  No, but “The Heart’s Invisible Furies” is one of my favourite novels ever so it’s probably not going to be, but it does compare with the other novels I’ve awarded 5* to this year and the answer become suddenly clear to me.

Half-way through The Elements Quartet and I don’t know whether the intention is to publish the four in one volume at some point.  If it is, what a work this would potentially be! But, however mouth- watering a prospect this would be I wouldn’t suggest holding out.  If I was John Boyne I’d be tempted to write a really long last instalment to stop that happening!  You do need to read these now.  The third volume “Fire” will be out towards the end of the year.

Earth is published by Doubleday on 18^th April.  Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.