BookBrowse Reviews Nicked by M.T. Anderson

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Based on actual historical events, M.T. Anderson's adult debut is a heist novel like none you've read before.

It's the year 1087, and the Adriatic port city of Bari, Italy—like much of the rest of Europe—has been overrun by a pox outbreak. In the absence of medical knowledge, the people, fearful and helpless, look to God for deliverance from suffering and death. The Benedictine monks are instructed by the archbishop to keep vigil and to pray to Nicholas, the saint known for so many miracles that he is called Nicholas the Wonderworker. One in particular, a monk named Nicephorus—possessed of "an irritatingly pure and generous heart"—has a dream in which the saint himself exhorts the monk not to wait, instead to "leave our nest."

News of Nicephorus's dream quickly spreads, and the city leaders immediately interpret it to mean that a ship should set sail from Bari to Myra, in what is now Turkey, to steal the saint's body from where it has rested for six centuries and to bring it to Bari, where it can both heal and protect the inhabitants. For it's well known that Nicholas's bones ooze an oily fluid called ichor, and anyone who drinks it is healed of their maladies. Coincidentally, a noted relic thief, Tyun, is in town, and he agrees to undertake the mission—for a price. Tyun's mercenary nature is as notorious as his skill at relic hunting is famous, so in order to ensure that he returns with the actual bones of the saint rather than those of an imposter, the abbot suggests that Nicephorus join the entourage, for he is "unable—infuriatingly unable—to tell a lie." With Nicephorus on board, the city's nobility and church leaders will know their investment is safe.

And quite an investment it is—in order to gain Tyun's services, they have to offer twice as much as Venice did for the same service. Nicholas's relics are in demand across pox-ravaged Europe. And so Nicephorus, a lowly monastery clerk, sets sail on the quest of a lifetime. On the way, he encounters sailors, adventurers, and mercenaries from across Europe, Asia, and Africa, including those who are Muslim or who worship no god at all. He also finds himself growing perplexedly fond of Tyun's brash claims and gentle teasing alike—and he might just find that telling the truth is the sneakiest possible way to save the day.

M.T. Anderson is an award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults, and here he seamlessly applies his storytelling skills to his first novel for adults. As he explains in an afterword, the seemingly outlandish adventures he chronicles are based on the historical record. But the novel is far more than a straightforward factual account; narrated wryly from the present day—"in an age of sickness; in a time of rage; in an epoch when tyrants take their seats beneath the white domes of capitals"—Anderson also infuses his clever account with playful details inspired by medieval texts. This is a world where miracles and magic are accepted as fact, where no one questions that men with the heads of dogs can serve as sailors. The end result for the reader is a sense of wonder, a readiness for anything to be possible.

Nicked is also a gentle, sweet coming-out story, as Nicephorus allows his newfound openness and spirit of adventure to extend to his human relationships (readers who enjoy the mixture of history, humor, and queer love story in the TV show Our Flag Means Death will find much to appreciate here). And in the end, the story is as much about bodies as it is about the divine, and perhaps how the two are connected in more ways than one. Stories of the miracles of St. Nicholas are interspersed throughout the narrative, for, as the novel contends, recalling the stories of deceased loved ones helps keep the departed intact for a while longer: "Not just for saints, but for those we loved and ancestors we've heard of from our parents...Recall their stories. Otherwise, they are once again disarticulated and their remains scattered." Thanks to M.T. Anderson, the exploits of Nicephorus, Tyun, and their crew will not soon be forgotten.

This review first ran in the July 31, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.