Description

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by The Washington Post, Debutiful, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and LitHub
Publishers Weekly Writer to Watch for Spring 2025

‘This novel has all the ingredients of a Native American Succession’ Sunday Times

‘A blistering work’ New York Magazine

‘A big-minded book about small-town politics’ Kirkus (starred review)

‘Hickey’s polished debut novel takes place in a few fraught days preceding an election at the fictional Passage Rouge Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin…At its heart, this is a novel about the difficulties of belonging to a family or a community while plagued by an unsettled conscience and about the ways in which ambition and power can have drastic results on any playing field’ Booklist

There, There meets The Night Watchman in this gripping literary debut about power and corruption, family, and facing the ghosts of the past.

Mitch Caddo, a young law school graduate and aspiring political fixer, is an outsider in the homeland of his Anishinaabe ancestors. But alongside his childhood friend, Tribal President Mack Beck, he runs the government of the Passage Rouge Nation, and with it, the tribe’s Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel. On the eve of Mack’s reelection, their tenuous grip on power is threatened by a nationally known activist and politician, Gloria Hawkins, and her young aide, Layla Beck, none other than Mack’s estranged sister and Mitch’s former love. In their struggle for control over Passage Rouge, the campaigns resort to bare-knuckle political gamesmanship, testing the limits of how far they will go-and what they will sacrifice-to win it all.

But when an accident claims the life of Mitch’s mentor, a power broker in the reservation’s political scene, the election slides into chaos and pits Mitch against the only family he has. As relationships strain to their breaking points and a peaceful protest threatens to become an all-consuming riot, Mitch and Layla must work together to stop the reservation’s descent into violence.

Thrilling and timely, Big Chief is an unforgettable story about the search for belonging-to an ancestral and spiritual home, to a family, and to a sovereign people at a moment of great historical importance.

Publisher Review

‘Big Chief features all the twisty chessmanship-the familial feuds, the financial games, the political maneuvering-of Succession and sets it against the backdrop of Indian country. Jon Hickey has written one hell of an addictive and important debut novel.’ — Benjamin Percy, author of <span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic" style="box-sizing: border-box; co 'An instant American classic! Out of the dark fields of the republic, Mitch Caddo rises to great heights, only to lose his soul in the process. But like all great American novels, there is hope–in the end, there is always hope. Jon Hickey locks arms with Alexie, Silko, Orange, Erdrich and others who are taking back a landscape that was once all theirs.' — Ernesto Quinonez, author of <span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic" style="box-sizing: borde "Big Chief is an explosive exploration of power and its corrupting effect. Jon Hickey takes us on a feverish journey in the days leading up to a hotly contested tribal election, where loyalties are being sharply tested, and the lines between right and wrong have become blurred. I found myself holding my breath as I turned the page — as the characters struggled to figure out how to be on the right side of history. This book is an astounding achievement." — Vanessa Chan, nationally bestselling author of <span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic" style="box-s 'Taut, timely, and brimming with suspense, Big Chief questions our notions of power and morality, holding a mirror to our crooked, calculating world. This is a monumental debut.' * Kirstin Chen, New York Times<span class="a-text-bold" style=" * 'All politics is local meets all unhappy families in this comical, humane, and profound debut-a deftly observed meditation on what it means to be a brother, a son, a leader, and a man. Jon Hickey is a newly minted master of slapstick American misery, and Big Chief a big-hearted book, a big mood for the big mess we're all in.' * J. Robert Lennon, author of Hard Girls * 'Big Chief is explosive. It's a political novel in the best way possible: the way Rachel Kushner's Telex from Cuba or Mavis Gallant's Paris Notebooks are. Hickey's novel shows us what unease in a particular body politic looks like, what it feels like.' * George McCormick, author of Salton Sea * 'This is a new American classic. Hickey's book is tightly written while being an expansive look into Indigenous politics. If you only read one book this year, make it this book.' * Debutiful
* ‘Big Chief is a marvel: unflinching yet nuanced, this story about power and politics on a reservation in Wisconsin shows the potential for corruption, and courage, in all of us. Hickey writes with precision and elegance, exploring what it means to belong to a family, a community, and a history. A family saga as well as a political drama, this book is a propulsive inquiry into how personal and cultural identity can be created and erased.’ — Gwen E. Kirby, author of <span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic" style="box-sizing: border-box; col 'We've been waiting for the great Native American political novel, and here it is-a gripping story that illustrates the intricacies and intrigues of reservation politics. The book examines Native sovereignty, power, and corruption at the fictional Passage Rouge Nation, as well as issues of Indigenous community, family, and identity. Not to mention, Jon Hickey creates fantastically compelling characters and weaves in a healthy dose of Native humor. A tremendous debut.' — David Heska Wanbli Weiden, award-winning author of <span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic" style="b 'Big Chief is bursting with tribal politics, old family entanglements, and is simply put, one hell of a story. For fans of Erdrich, you can't go wrong.' — Erika T. Wurth, author of <span class="a-text-bold a-text-italic" style="box-sizing: border-box; co