A Kirkus Editors Pick A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: Cowboys & Indians | Brit + Co | Debutiful Most Anticipated Book of 2025

With amazing dexterity, Aaron John Curtiss moving debut novel, Old School Indian, combines raucous humor with respect for ancestral traditions. Honore Fanonne Jeffers, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

“A novel of pure heart and mastery. Morgan Talty, bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez and Fire Exit

“An inspired novel by an author whose voice absolutely sizzles on the page. Nathan Hill, New York Times bestselling author of Wellness and The Nix

A coming-of-middle-age novel about an Ahkweshsne mans reluctant return home and what it takes to heal.

Abe Jacobs is Kanienkeh:ka from Ahkweshsneor, as white people say, a Mohawk Indian from the Saint Regis Tribe. At eighteen, Abe left the reservation where he was raised and never looked back.

Now forty-three, Abe is suffering from a rare diseaseone his doctors in Miami believe will kill him. Running from his diagnosis and a failing marriage, Abe returns to the Rez, where hes persuaded to undergo a healing at the hands of his Great Uncle Budge. But Budgea wry, recovered alcoholic prone to wearing punk T-shirtsisnt all that convincing. And Abes time off the Rez has made him a thorough skeptic.

To heal, Abe will undertake a revelatory journey, confronting the parts of himself hes hidden ever since he left home and learning to cultivate hope, even at his darkest hour.

Delivered with crackling wit, Old School Indian is a striking exploration of the power and secrets of family, the capacity for healing and catharsis, and the ripple effects of history and culture.