Sky Full of Elephants

Cebo Campbell’s debut novel Sky Full of Elephants (2024) merges literary genres, including speculative fiction, magical realism, and didacticism. Campbell creates a United States where white people drown themselves and a Black father and his multiracial daughter try to establish positive identities in the new landscape. Aside from The Search for a Unified Identity, the story focuses on the themes of Black Trauma Versus White Guilt and Creating Holistic, Inclusive Systems. Campbell co-founded the creative agency Spherical, and he identifies as a multi-hyphenate creative.

This guide refers to the 2024 Simon & Schuster e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of bullying, racism, rape, gender and transgender discrimination, death by suicide, and suicidal ideation.

Language Note: The source material doesn’t capitalize “Black” when referring to Black people. When quoting the text, the guide keeps Campbell’s punctuation.

Plot Summary

Charlie is a Black man who previously had a brief affair with a white woman, Elizabeth Waggoner. Elizabeth has a brother, Thomas, and Thomas walked in on Elizabeth and Charlie having sex. Elizabeth accused Charlie of rape, and a court of law sentenced Charlie to jail. When “the event” occurs, Charlie is in jail. The event involves white people walking into the nearest body of water and drowning themselves. Without white people, the United States becomes radically different. Capitalism deteriorates, and communal systems emerge. The people in jail are free, and Charlie becomes a professor at Howard University. Charlie’s main interests are electricity and machines. As a young person, he was an expert at fixing radios. Now, he wants to create a sustainable, visible power grid for the post-event United States.

After class, Sidney—Charlie and Elizabeth’s daughter—calls Charlie. Sidney lives in Wisconsin, and she watched her stepfather, half-brothers, and mother walk into a body of water. She tried to drown herself, but she couldn’t. Thomas’s wife, Agnes (Sidney’s aunt), left a note on her gated home about survivors living in Orange Beach, Alabama. Sidney wants Charlie to drive her there. Unlike the Northeast and other big cities, the South is allegedly a “war zone.” Nevertheless, Charlie agrees to help Sidney get to Orange Beach.

Sidney and Charlie have never met in person, as Sidney was born while Charlie was in prison. Sidney doesn’t know Elizabeth falsely accused Charlie of rape. She believes Charlie chose to leave her and her mother. When Charlie arrives at Sidney’s Wisconsin home, she aims a gun at him. When a Black father and son wander on her property, she threatens them with a gun. Sidney doesn’t identify as Black. She thinks of herself as exclusively white, so she belongs with the other white people in Orange Beach.

Charlie and Sidney drive to O’Hare Airport in Chicago. The post-event airports don’t charge for flights, and the terminals have a relaxed, neighborly atmosphere. Many pilots won’t fly South, but Sailor, a cantankerous yet spirited pilot, agrees to fly them in exchange for gasoline. Sailor wants to start an airport in Mississippi. He flies them and his child, Zu, to Mississippi, and they drive to the Alabama border, where boys apprehend Charlie, Sidney, and Zu. Though the boys look dangerous, they’re not. They take Charlie, Sidney, and Zu to Mobile, Alabama, which has become a model society. There’s a benevolent king and queen, Hosea and Vivian. Their daughter is Nona, and their sons are Tau, Herald, and Fela.

Sidney and Fela quickly develop a romantic relationship, and Nona refers to Sidney as her sister. Sidney doesn’t want to be Nona’s sister. She doesn’t want to be a part of Mobile: She still wants to go to Orange Beach. The Mobile society amazes Charlie. He compares it to a machine without “friction.” The king and queen don’t have to force the population to act decently: The people naturally behave well. The citizens spend the first part of the day pursuing their passions; the next block of the day involves improving their minds, hearts, and bodies; and the final part of the day centers on spirituality.

Hosea and Vivian’s royal residence is a three-story home with a garage. In the garage, Charlie notices a large radio-like machine. After speaking with Hosea about the device, Charlie realizes that the machine channels and releases Black consciousness. Hosea turned it on, and the collective force of Black people’s feelings propelled white people to drown themselves. Hosea wants Charlie to fix the machine so that it can run at full power, but Charlie doesn’t want to cause further death. Hosea says Charlie should speak to Vivian, as Vivian ordered Hosea to turn on the machine. Nona joins the conversation between Hosea, Vivian, and Charlie: Nona thinks Charlie should decide if the machine goes on again.

Around Nona, Sidney learns to embrace her Blackness, and after Charlie tells her about Elizabeth’s rape accusation, Sidney views Orange Beach as a confrontation. At Orange Beach, she finds Agnes. Agnes is a walker, or a person who believes they’ll go to heaven if they drown themselves, so she plans to drown herself in water, and she wants others to do the same. Sidney thinks Agnes is nonsensical, and she rebukes Agnes for perpetuating Thomas’s lie. Initially, Agnes is unapologetic. Later, she becomes remorseful. She tells Sidney that Hosea and Vivian are responsible for the event and the death of her family. Unsettled, Sidney drives across the country. She learns that she can’t obliterate her conflict, but she can cope with it. Using the stars, she sends a message to her father so he knows she’s fine.

Charlie realizes that he can power the machine through the stars and the energy of Black lives. People always told Charlie that darkness was inimical, but now Charlie can use it to express the vastness of Black life. At the same time, the machine needs a specific source, and Charlie serves as the source. During Mardi Gras, when the energy reaches its peak, Charlie turns on the machine, and the world hears the joyous sounds of Black people.