The Elements
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Pre-order for $24.74
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Anna Friel
-
Colin Morgan
-
Dane Whyte O’Hara
-
Niamh Cusack
-
By:
-
John Boyne
About this listen
From bestselling author John Boyne, a gripping and profound exploration of guilt, blame, trauma, and the human capacity for redemption.
In The Elements, acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne has created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on crime: the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator, and the victim.
The narrative follows a mother on the run from her past, a young soccer star facing a trial, a successful surgeon grappling with childhood trauma, and a father on a transformative journey with his son. Each is somehow connected to the next, and as the story unfolds, their lives intersect in unimaginable ways.
Boyne’s most ambitious work yet, The Elements is both an engrossing drama and a moving investigation of why and how we allow crime to occur. With masterful, spellbinding prose, he navigates this complex subject with extraordinary empathy and unflinching honesty. The story resonates on a deeply emotional level, challenging listeners to confront their own conceptions of guilt and innocence at every step. Amid the wildly engrossing storytelling, the book ultimately asks: What would you do when faced with the unthinkable?
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom
- A Novel
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Tim McInnerny
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This story starts with a family. For now, it is a father and a mother with two sons, one with his father’s violence in his blood, one with his mother’s artistry. One leaves. One stays. They will be joined by others whose deeds will determine their fate. It is a beginning. Their stories will intertwine and evolve over the course of 2,000 years. They will meet again and again at different times and in different places. From Palestine at the dawn of the first millennium and journeying across 50 countries to a life among the stars, their destinies remain the same....
-
-
AD 2016
- By Warren on 08-24-20
By: John Boyne
-
The Absolutist
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is September 1919: Twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the sister of Will Bancroft, the man he fought alongside during the Great War. But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it. As Tristan recounts the horrific details of what to him became a senseless war, he also speaks of his friendship with Will - from their first meeting on the training grounds at Aldershot to their farewell in the trenches of northern France.
-
-
Love, War, and Guilt
- By Cariola on 01-27-13
By: John Boyne
-
A History of Loneliness
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Propelled into the priesthood by a family tragedy, Odran Yates is full of hope and ambition. When he arrives at Clonliffe Seminary in the 1970s, it is a time in Ireland when priests are highly respected, and Odran believes that he is pledging his life to "the good."
-
-
A Profound and Moving Listen
- By Kathy in CA on 09-12-17
By: John Boyne
-
The Echo Chamber
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Cleverley family live a gilded life, little realising how precarious their privilege is, just one tweet away from disaster. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing, a 'national treasure' (his words); his wife, Beverley, a celebrated novelist; and their children, Nelson, Elizabeth, Achilles, various degrees of catastrophe waiting to happen. Together they will go on a journey of discovery through the Hogarthian jungle of the modern living where past presumptions count for nothing and carefully curated reputations can be destroyed in an instant.
-
-
Delicious, Witty, Hysterical!!
- By Wendi on 09-04-21
By: John Boyne
-
The House of Special Purpose
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part love story, part historical epic, part tragedy, The House of Special Purpose illuminates an empire at the end of its reign. Living in England with his beloved wife, Zoya, Georgy prepares to make one final journey back to the Russia he once knew and loved, the Russia that both destroyed and defined him. As Georgy remembers days gone by, we are transported to Saint Petersburg, to the Winter Palace of the tzar, in the early twentieth century - a time of change, threat, and bloody revolution.
-
-
Best book I have read in years!
- By Claudia Valeria Rion on 02-27-16
By: John Boyne
-
A Ladder to the Sky
- A Novel
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant, Richard Cordery, Nina Sosanya, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for fame. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent - but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own. Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful - but desperately lonely - older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war.
-
-
This is a very smart book
- By Johnnie Terry on 01-05-19
By: John Boyne
-
A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom
- A Novel
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Tim McInnerny
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This story starts with a family. For now, it is a father and a mother with two sons, one with his father’s violence in his blood, one with his mother’s artistry. One leaves. One stays. They will be joined by others whose deeds will determine their fate. It is a beginning. Their stories will intertwine and evolve over the course of 2,000 years. They will meet again and again at different times and in different places. From Palestine at the dawn of the first millennium and journeying across 50 countries to a life among the stars, their destinies remain the same....
-
-
AD 2016
- By Warren on 08-24-20
By: John Boyne
-
The Absolutist
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is September 1919: Twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the sister of Will Bancroft, the man he fought alongside during the Great War. But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it. As Tristan recounts the horrific details of what to him became a senseless war, he also speaks of his friendship with Will - from their first meeting on the training grounds at Aldershot to their farewell in the trenches of northern France.
-
-
Love, War, and Guilt
- By Cariola on 01-27-13
By: John Boyne
-
A History of Loneliness
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Propelled into the priesthood by a family tragedy, Odran Yates is full of hope and ambition. When he arrives at Clonliffe Seminary in the 1970s, it is a time in Ireland when priests are highly respected, and Odran believes that he is pledging his life to "the good."
-
-
A Profound and Moving Listen
- By Kathy in CA on 09-12-17
By: John Boyne
-
The Echo Chamber
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Cleverley family live a gilded life, little realising how precarious their privilege is, just one tweet away from disaster. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing, a 'national treasure' (his words); his wife, Beverley, a celebrated novelist; and their children, Nelson, Elizabeth, Achilles, various degrees of catastrophe waiting to happen. Together they will go on a journey of discovery through the Hogarthian jungle of the modern living where past presumptions count for nothing and carefully curated reputations can be destroyed in an instant.
-
-
Delicious, Witty, Hysterical!!
- By Wendi on 09-04-21
By: John Boyne
-
The House of Special Purpose
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part love story, part historical epic, part tragedy, The House of Special Purpose illuminates an empire at the end of its reign. Living in England with his beloved wife, Zoya, Georgy prepares to make one final journey back to the Russia he once knew and loved, the Russia that both destroyed and defined him. As Georgy remembers days gone by, we are transported to Saint Petersburg, to the Winter Palace of the tzar, in the early twentieth century - a time of change, threat, and bloody revolution.
-
-
Best book I have read in years!
- By Claudia Valeria Rion on 02-27-16
By: John Boyne
-
A Ladder to the Sky
- A Novel
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant, Richard Cordery, Nina Sosanya, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maurice Swift is handsome, charming, and hungry for fame. The one thing he doesn’t have is talent - but he’s not about to let a detail like that stand in his way. After all, a would-be writer can find stories anywhere. They don’t need to be his own. Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful - but desperately lonely - older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war.
-
-
This is a very smart book
- By Johnnie Terry on 01-05-19
By: John Boyne