Elephant in the Sky: A Novel

Ashley loves her high stakes job as an executive at an advertising firm, even though it keeps her away from her family sometimes. She thinks she’s doing a good job balancing her life… until her son starts acting strangely, and all of her maternal instincts tell her something is seriously wrong with her nine-year-old son Nate. Nate has been struggling to make sense of his life recently, and the things he has been seeing and hearing leave him feeling scared and alone.

Heather Clark has produced another amazing novel with Elephant in the Sky. By delving into the world of childhood mental illnesses, she brings to light a topic that is too often ignored by mainstream media. Readers will identify strongly with Ashley, with her love of her career constantly at odds with the overwhelming guilt she feels about not spending enough time with her children and husband. By switching back and forth between Ashley’s and Nate’s perspectives, one gets a strong sense of just what these characters are up against, and how all-encompassing mental illness is. This book is well-written and hard to put down, as Ashley struggles to protect her son from the hand life has dealt him.