Sky Full of Elephants

This novel by Cebo Campbell refuses to look away. 

Sky Full of Elephants carries the weight of 400 years of Black American history—slavery, segregation, the long shadow of the Civil Rights era still brushing against our present—and holds it close enough for us to feel the burn. That alone makes the book necessary.

But what gives it power is its heart. The author writes with a kind of Chicago honesty: no frills, no safe distance, no pretending that pain doesn’t echo across generations. The characters aren’t symbols or lessons; they’re people trying to live whole lives while history keeps pressing its thumb into their backs. They love fiercely. They grieve quietly. They laugh in ways that feel like survival.

The title becomes a haunting truth—elephants in the sky, memories that never quite settle, the burdens we inherit and the hope we keep chasing—as they move anyway.

The novel doesn’t offer easy redemption, but it offers something better: clarity. It reminds us that endurance is its own kind of brilliance, and that telling the story—plain, raw, and beautiful—is an act of resistance.

Sky Full of Elephants is a tough, tender, unforgettable book.