Sky Full of Elephants

By: Cebo Campbell

Narrated by: Leon Nixon, Erin Ruth Walker, Janina Edwards

Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

In a world without white people, what does it mean to be black?

One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charlie Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old left behind by her white mother and step-family.

Traumatized by the event, and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search for answers. But neither of them are prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it.

Heading south toward what is now called the Kingdom of Alabama, everything Charlie and Sidney thought they knew about themselves, and the world, will be turned upside down. Brimming with heart and humor, Cebo Campbell’s astonishing debut novel is about the power of community and connection, about healing and self-actualization, and a reckoning with what it means to be Black in America, in both their world and ours.

©2024 Cebo Campbell (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

An uplifting experience of blackness

What an excellent description of the experience of blackness 🔥 I loved having the perspectives of different worlds colliding

Beautiful. inspiring. Hopeful

Beautifully written. Requires an examination of what I believe about life, money , family and , connection.

A book about healing

A book about healing the Black Community. The best way to do that is to get rid of our oppressor.

A book you can really get lost in

First and foremost Sidney is sooooo annoying lol. Overall this book made me think, how would I do things differently if that event really happened. this book was very entertaining and as well as informative, I really enjoyed thus book

Loved the story

I loved the story line and I was invested in each character and loved the way the author was careful about how he told the story. Very good story.

Healing by way of frequency

The beginning of the book peaked my interest. There were no dull moments! Captured the feelings of the characters perfectly! We all need to heal without the weight of other burdens! Loved it ❤️

Excellent

The story line was interesting and just what got people think about themselves and their purpose in life

Outstanding

What makes this book particularly engaging is its exploration of what healing looks like for Black America when freed from the historical legacy of whiteness. Campbell doesn’t shy away from difficult questions, such as whether it’s justifiable to pursue healing that might harm others or whether this new world is truly “better.” For Black readers, this novel offers a reflection on both empowerment and the cost of enduring generational wounds, while for non-Black readers, it offers an unsettling but necessary reimagining of racial dynamics .

This speculative fiction isn’t merely about the absence of white people; it’s a profound meditation on what remains, what is built, and how communities recover from trauma. The novel challenges traditional narratives by centering Black voices and experiences, pushing readers to reflect on both historical and present-day realities in Black America. Sky Full of Elephants is a thought-provoking, conversation-starting book that demands to be read with an open mind and a readiness to engage with its complex themes

Deep

This is my first time really listening to an entire book. And I have to say to is was very interesting.

A story for us.

This story soothed my soul. Almost everyone I know who is Black in America has pondered a version of this thought and to see it written so masterfully healed something in me. This story reveals so much truth about our collective existence and has a profound way of sharing it.