Nicked

By: M. T. Anderson

Published by Random House, 2025-07-22

<b>AN NPR NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the award-winning and bestselling author of <i>Feed</i> 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<br> <br> "[A] rollicking comic novel."—NPR<br> <br>"The 11th century queer romantic adventure you didn’t know you were looking for."—<i>Los Angeles Times</i><br> <br>"Miracles, marvels, saints, sinners, love, plague, and treachery! A medieval feast of a novel, stuffed with everything I could have wished for."—Kelly Link, author of <i>The Book of Love</i></b><br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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, <i>Nicked </i>is a swashbuckling saga, a medieval novel noir, and a monastic meet-cute, filled with wide-eyed wonder at the world that awaits beyond our own borders.