Nicked
Based on a bizarre but true quest to steal the mystical corpse of a long-dead saint, Nicked is a fantastical, genre-defying, and delightfully queer historical romp.
Pantheon (2024)
ISBN: 9780593701607
Awards
Vermont Book Award Finalist ● Massachusetts Book Award Finalist
“Miracles, marvels, saints, sinners, love, plague, and treachery! M. T. Anderson has laid out a medieval feast of a novel, stuffed with everything I could have wished for. If I could canonize him for it, I would. But I’ll settle for shouting about how much I love this book.” — Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love
“Anderson is a once-in-a-generation perfect storm of wit, ethical zing, and sheer linguistic power.” — George Saunders, author of Liberation Day and Lincoln in the Bardo
“M. T. Anderson is one of our greatest and most precious voices. His books aren’t just brilliantly witty and vastly entertaining, they’re fixed stars of wisdom and sanity in our increasingly unhinged universe. When lost, I use them to steer by.”— Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians Trilogy
"A miracle worker, M. T. Anderson has exhumed the bones of holy legend and startled them to life." — Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Elphie
"This book is terrific! Very poetic, surprisingly romantic, funny. I just loved it." — Rainbow Rowell, author of Eleanor & Park and Fangirl
The year is 1087, and a pox is sweeping through the Italian city of Bari. When a lowly monk is visited by Saint Nicholas in his dreams, he interprets the vision as a call to serve the sick. But his superiors, and the power brokers they serve, have different plans for the tender-hearted Brother Nicephorus.
Enter Tyun, a charismatic treasure hunter renowned for “liberating” holy relics from their tombs. The seven-hundred-year-old bones of Saint Nicholas are rumored to weep a mysterious liquid that can heal the sick, Tyun says. For the humble price of a small fortune, he will steal the bones and deliver them to Bari, curing the plague and restoring glory to the fallen city. And Nicephorus, the “dreamer,” will be his guide.
What follows is a heist for the ages, as Nicephorus is swept away on strange tides, and alongside even stranger bedfellows, to commit sacrilegious theft. Based on real historical accounts, Nicked is a swashbuckling saga, a medieval novel noir, a holy heist, a meditation on the miraculous, and a monastic meet-cute, filled with wide-eyed wonder at the world that awaits beyond our own borders.
Hear M. T. Anderson discuss Nicked with Scott Simon on NPR’s Weekend Edition.
Reviews
★ "[A] rollicking tale ... Anderson stocks the exhilarating narrative with sea battles, comely spies, duels, and double crosses." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
★ "Enthralling ... An always entertaining and unexpectedly poignant adventure as rare and gleaming as a reliquary." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"An uproarious saga" — New York Times
"[Nicked] positively thrums with excitement.... There's something of the Princess Bride in Anderson's simultaneous undercutting and celebration of adventure fiction." — Boston Globe
"Think Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, with its dry wit and profound existential themes, all centered around two characters trying to grasp something ineffable and grabbing hold of only each other." — Book Riot
"An epic adventure on land and sea ... reminiscent of Indiana Jones and The Princess Bride, Nicked delivers an entertaining and grown-up adventure rooted in religion, humanity, and friendship." — BookPage
"A heist that is complex and action-packed enough to make even the likes of Steven Soderbergh jealous." — Polygon