Nicked: A Novel

3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars | 155 ratings

Price: 13.78

Last update: 12-08-2024


About this item

"[An] uproarious saga . . . drawing on contemporary accounts, fantastical folk tales, and [Anderson's] own knack for high jinks."—New York Times Book Review

"[A] rollicking comic novel."—NPR

"M. T. Anderson is one of our greatest and most precious voices."—Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians Trilogy

From the award-winning and bestselling author of Feed comes a raucous, slyly funny, and delightfully queer work of historical fantasy, based on a bizarre but true quest to steal the mystical corpse of a long-dead saint

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 meditation on the miraculous, and a monastic meet-cute, filled with wide-eyed wonder at the world that awaits beyond our own borders.


Top reviews from the United States

Drew2
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2024
Based on a true story, Nicked is a historical novel about a heist, specifically the theft of the bones of St. Nicholas. Yes, that St. Nicholas, whose remains were thought to produce an oil that had miraculous healing powers. The characters are vivid, including a cynical relic-hunter named Tyun and a naive but very capable young monk, Nicephorus, who has a dream that sets the action going. Our team, from the southern Italian city of Bari, is in competition with a cohort from Venice. The descriptions of the various locations, the action sequences, and, as I said, the characters all come together to make this a spellbinding, page-turning experience.
Norman Lerner
4.0 out of 5 stars Who Knew?
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2024
Page turning historical fiction following the adventures of a monk and a tomb robber
in search of the healing bones of St. Nicholas.
Much new vocabulary is introduced … Myroblite,
Ichor.. etc, etc — hope your copy is connected to
a dictionary; this overdone sometimes annoying.
Also the more than hints of a gay romance going on
a bit gratuitous but above all an enjoyable read —-and I sense sequel and or film about this improbable and colorful duo quite possible.
Bway Jack
3.0 out of 5 stars A sad disappointment
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2024
I kept wanting to like NICKED more than I did. It's a reasonably swash-buckling adventure, with a nice homoerotic underpinning. But none of the characters exist in three dimensions. While the plot lurches forward, with loads of colorful detail, the players are but shadows. With the exception of the pompous, vain Duke of Venice, everyone else is a bit of a cipher - including both our leading players.

in 11th Century Bari, in what is now known as Puglia, the heel of Italy's boot, Brother Nicephorus has a dream that the body of St. Nicholas should be rehoused in the regional capital. There are several obstacles, not least of which is Venice, home to the stolen body of Saint Mark, similarly seeks to capture St. Nicholas. Both sides have hired a bloodless "relic hunter," one Tyun, a Turk with no apparent affiliation except to his own profit. Nicephorus, who has never left Bari and the cloister, is sent on this amazing adventure with Tyun to "obtain" (Or steal) the sacred relics.

The story has many wonderful components, especially a vivid sea battle with their Venetian rivals. There are wonderfully rich descriptions of the various places they visit on their sojourn.

But this adventurous tale, the stuff of ancient lore and Saturday afternoon three-reelers, never comes fully to life, even during the battle scenes.

A sad disappointment.
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful!
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2024
This is one of those happy stories that leaves you feeling more pleased with the world than when you started it. As promised, it both rollicks and romps. It feels like the medieval remains of classical antiquity are the author's playgrounds, and we're invited along as he combines amphitheaters, Roman baths, gods, folk tales, statues, ancient churches, tombs, and triremes. A reminder that the world can be rich, strange, and drenched in delight.
rusereviews
4.0 out of 5 stars queer historical fiction based on true events
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2024
(3.5/5 stars)

Nicked by M.T. Anderson is a a queer historical fiction featuring the true story of a quest to steal the bones of a long-dead saint.

I initially tried reading via ebook, but it was hard for me to get into it while reading with my eyes. I ended up borrowing the audiobook from my library, and I am so glad I pivoted. Euan Morton narrates and does a bang-up job. It was so much easier for me to pick up on the humor of the book while listening to it being read to me.

This book is marketed as the author's adult debut, but I think it could also be appropriate for older teens. Interspersed within the quest to gather the bones are interstitial stories from the life of Saint Nicholas, and I think the author's writing really shines in those moments.

While there was a bit of a queer love story here, it was severely underbaked. It definitely needed more development; more show rather than tell. The book is a little on the shorter side--under 250 pages--so the author definitely had more canvas on which they could have painted that story. Alas.

If you liked Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lenon or the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters, you should give this one a try!
Lauren Mackenzie
5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, cynical, relatable, and just wonderfully well-written.
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2024
Nicephorus, the only level-headed, normal guy of the bunch is gaslight by his bosses who put too much stock in one dream that this tender-hearted monk has, and sent off on a wild adventure. His companions, basically a bunch of pirates including: a dog-headed man (yes, really. He has a tail.) and a cynical relic thief. Their goal? To steal the body of Saint Nicholas to bring back his “ooze” ✨full body grimace✨ to heal the pox infecting the Italian city of Bari.

It’s only the reluctant monk, enemies to lovers romance, medieval heist novel I’ve been DREAMING of (hah, get it?).

Funny, cynical, relatable, and just wonderfully well-written. History and mythology at its absolute finest. This was a blast to read!

Going into this I knew nothing beyond the cover reminding me of If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. It’s one of my favorite books so I had a good feeling about this one. Nicked quickly cemented itself as one of my favorite books of the year, and probably in my all time top five.

Thank you NetGalley, Pantheon, and M.T. Anderson for the ARC!
Ryan Ahlgrim
3.0 out of 5 stars Amusing, but not much else
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2024
Most stories set in the Middle Ages feature jousting knights, castles, and perhaps a dragon. Not this novel. MT Anderson tells a rollicking, humorous adventure of pirates stealing the bones of Saint Nicholas. Although fictionalized, it's based on actual events, and thus it provides an insightful and startling portrait of the Middle Ages as we've never seen it before. So why only three stars? Because Anderson is clumsy when it comes to describing action, his characters are two-dimensional, and I guessed the ultimate resolution almost immediately. Result: no real tension.

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