Big Chief
Published on 12. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-1-3985-3425-4 (ISBN)
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
"This novel has all the ingredients of a Native American Succession" - Sunday Times"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 White Horse and The Haunting of Room 904
"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 Winter Counts
"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 Shit Cassandra Saw
"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 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
"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 and Buzz Kill
"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 bestselling author of Counterfeit
"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, bestselling author of The Storm We Made
"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 Bodega Dreams
"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 The Ninth Metal, Thrill Me, Red Moon, and Refresh, Refresh
"A compelling and strong Native American novel about politics and power and how far some people will go to hold on to what they have."-Brandon Hobson, author of US National Book Award finalist Where the Dead Sit Talking
"Deliciously ruthless and absolutely huge, Big Chief unleashes the Shakespearean realities of Passage Rouge with seismic ambition and brilliance. A colossal novel of and for our time."-Cody Caetano, author of Half-Bads in White Regalia
"A must read, Hickey brings us into the chaos and catastrophes that the colonial imposed electoral system creates in Indigenous communities but also shows the reader how community, a sense of belonging, and family is what really matters in the end."-Conor Kerr, author of Giller prize shortlisted Prairie Edge
"A sly debut about drama in Native American politics...Hickey is so sure-footed that I'll follow wherever he goes next."-Sophia Nguyen, Washington Post
"Propulsive...a masterclass...Big Chief is a dazzling, fast-paced pressure-cooker journey about not letting others define who we are, but rather deciding that for ourselves."-San Francisco Chronicle
"Unexpected, disturbingly funny...the sort of work that betokens genuine talent, with the promise of more to come."-New York Times
"An entertaining political thriller...Hickey's depiction of the reality of reservation life eschews stereotypes and caricatures in favor of complex, multifaceted people...Big Chief understands the unique double consciousness of what it means to be Native American-the political workings of a tribe, the meaning of belonging under Indian law. But the novel is smart enough to keep all these ideas swirling, using them as the backdrop for an engrossing political thriller."-Los Angeles Review of Books
"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
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Simon & Schuster Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 194 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
234 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3985-3425-4 (9781398534254)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
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.