Big Chief

(Hardback, Large Print Edition)

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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 tribes Golden Eagle Casino and Hotel. On the eve of Macks 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 Macks estranged sister and Mitchs 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 goand what they will sacrificeto win it all.

But when an accident claims the life of Mitchs mentor, a power broker in the reservations 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 reservations descent into violence.

Thrilling and timely, Big Chief is an unexpected, disturbingly funny (The New York Times) and unforgettable story about the search for belongingto an ancestral and spiritual home, to a family, and to a sovereign people at a moment of great historical importance.