In this exquisite speculative novel set in a world where white people no longer exist, college professor Charlie Brunton receives a call from his estranged daughter Sidney, setting off a chain of events as they journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search of answers.

One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charles 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 who watched her white mother and step-family drown themselves in the lake behind their house.

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 America headed for Alabama, where Sidney believes she may still have some family left. But neither Sidney or Charlie is prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it.

When they enter 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.

I received a complimentary copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

This was such a fantastic read. I seriously can’t stop thinking about it. I went into this one half expecting it might be a comedy based on the premise, but Campbell uses this story to go deep. Really deep. And I’m so glad he did. I devoured every last page.

Here’s the setup. One day, every white person in America walks into the nearest body of water and drowns. (Yes, all of them.) A year later, we meet Charles Brunton, a Black man who served time for a wrongful conviction and is now a professor at Howard University. He gets a call from his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old he wasn’t even sure existed. Sidney watched her white mother and stepfamily walk into the lake behind their house. She’s been isolated in Wisconsin ever since, traumatized and terrified of the outside world. She reaches out to Charlie, the father she’s never met and has always resented, because she needs help getting to Alabama where it’s rumored a group of white people still exists. She thinks she might still have family there thanks to a note she found and she wants to go find them.

What follows is a road trip across a completely transformed America. And neither Sidney nor Charlie is prepared for what they’re about to face.

What I loved most about this book is how thoughtfully Campbell explores what a world without white people might actually look like. He doesn’t treat it as a joke or a fantasy. He examines it seriously. What institutions would collapse? What systems would disappear? How would people adjust to a world without the labels, restraints, and structures that white men put in place generations ago? Structures that have been oppressive to anyone who isn’t white, straight, or Christian for as long as they’ve existed.

In the book, it’s only been a year and the world hasn’t completely settled yet. People are still figuring things out. Some are thriving. Some are struggling. And watching that unfold was fascinating. Campbell doesn’t give easy answers. He shows the complexity The confusion. And most of all, the freedom.

One of the most compelling parts of the book is how Campbell handles identity, particularly for biracial characters who passed as white. They’re still here. They survived. But now they’re living in a world where passing as white no longer matters, and they have to reckon with who they actually are. That exploration hit hard. It added layers to the story that I wasn’t expecting, and it made the whole thing hit even harder.

Sidney and Charlie are both incredible characters. Sidney is dealing with massive trauma. She watched her family die. She’s been alone for a year. She’s angry, scared, and resentful. Charlie is carrying his own wounds. A wrongful conviction. Years in prison. A daughter he never knew. Their relationship is messy and complicated, and it takes time for them to even begin to understand each other. But that slow build felt earned. The supporting characters (especially the family they meet in Alabama) are just as beautifully layered. I loved them all so much.

The journey itself is unpredictable. When they reach the Kingdom of Alabama, everything they thought they knew about themselves and the world gets flipped upside down. I don’t want to spoil what happens, but it’s bold and unexpected and completely reframes the entire story.

I also loved the explanation of what actually caused the event. When it’s finally revealed, it hit me hard. SO much so that I audibly gasped. It made so much sense. It wasn’t just some random supernatural occurrence. It was rooted in something deeper. It’s a gut punch.

This book is about community and connection. It’s about healing and self-actualization. It’s about what it means to be Black in America, both in the world Campbell created and in ours. The pacing is tight, the prose is perfect and the characters are all so beautifully rendered. It would be a crime not to experience them.

I finished this book and immediately wanted to talk about it with someone. This is one I will likely rave about for years, and one I will definitely revisit. It’s thought-provoking, emotional, funny, and bold. Campbell took a premise that could have easily gone off the rails and turned it into something powerful and necessary.

If you’re looking for speculative fiction that has something real to say, this is it. I can’t praise it enough.