John Boyne - The Elements

Award-winning Irish novelist John Boyne joins Katt Cullen on the WRS Breakfast Show to discuss his powerful new novel The Elements - a sweeping literary saga exploring guilt, trauma, complicity, and redemption through four interconnected narratives. Best known internationally for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Boyne is the author of sixteen novels for adults, alongside books for younger readers, novellas, and short story collections. His bestselling 2006 novel became a global phenomenon, translated into more than 58 languages and adapted into a critically acclaimed film in 2008. The novel has sold more than 11 million copies globally, making it one of the bestselling books of all time. Its sequel, All the Broken Places, was published in 2022. Now in Geneva to speak with the Geneva Literary Society, Boyne is discussing his 2025 novel The Elements, which follows a mother on the run from her past, a young football star facing trial, a surgeon haunted by childhood trauma, and a father and son on a transformative journey. Each story explores a different role within cycles of harm - the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator, and the victim - before gradually intertwining in unexpected ways. Widely described as Boyne’s most ambitious work yet, The Elements examines how and why people allow wrongdoing to happen, challenging readers to confront their own understanding of guilt, innocence, responsibility, and forgiveness. Katt spoke with John Boyne about the enduring legacy of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, the inspiration behind The Elements, and why these themes continue to resonate so strongly today. You can attend John's Societé de Lecture talk (in English) at 7pm on Wednesday 20 May at 11 Grand Rue, 1204 Geneva.  Tickets are CHF 20 for members and CHF 30 for non-members and can be purchased at : societe-de-lecture.ch/events/john-boyne-english/