The Elements
Interview conducted by Clare O’Dea, journalist and author
Winner of the Prix du roman FNAC 2025 and the Prix Femina étranger 2025, JOHN BOYNE was born in 1971. He is an acclaimed Irish novelist, author of sixteen novels for adults, six novels for younger readers, two novellas, and one collection of short stories. His historical novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (Le garçon au pyjama rayé, Gallimard Jeunesse, 2007) received critical acclaim and was adapted into a 2008 drama film of the same name. As of 2022, the book has sold over eleven million copies worldwide and is one of the best-selling books of all time, translated into over 58 languages, and a sequel, All the Broken Places (La vie en fuite, JC Lattès, 2023), was published in 2022.
In The Elements (Les éléments, JC Lattès, 2025), he created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator and the victim. Each is somehow connected to the next, and as the story unfolds, their lives intersect in unimaginable ways. A gripping and profound exploration of guilt, blame, trauma and the human capacity for redemption.