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
"Propulsive...a masterclass...a dazzling, fast-paced pressure-cooker journey about not letting others define who we are, but rather deciding that for ourselves." -San Francisco Chronicle
A 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 Tribal President Mack Beck, his childhood friend, Mitch 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 "unexpected, disturbingly funny" (The New York Times) and 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. Jon Hickey earned his MFA at Cornell University and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He has received scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and he is an enrolled member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. Jon lives in San Francisco with his wife and two sons. "Loss haunts this powerful story of politics, corruption, and loyalty. Narrator Shaun Taylor–Corbett continues his fine work with Indigenous authors. He performs this debut novel with just the right tone, style, and tempo. He voices the angsty Mitch Caddo with a sure sense of his conflicted life as a "fixer" for the fictional Passage Rouge Nation. An outsider with an Ivy League law degree, Caddo works with his childhood friend, now tribal president, Mack Beck. The plot revolves around the days just before a tribal election when issues arise involving tribal membership and past suspect business dealings. Matters overheat, and violence occurs. Taylor–Corbett delivers the dialogue with restraint and intelligence and is masterful in bringing this compelling novel to life."
