Nicked: A Novel

“feels completely contemporary in terms of language, characters, descriptions. It just happens to take place in the 11th century.”

M.T. Anderson explains in the Afterword to Nicked his reasons for writing the book: "I wanted to write a historical novel with the love of a good story, incidental detail, and willful inaccuracy demanded by the European Middle Ages themselves."

There is indeed plenty of incidental detail and historical inaccuracies. The story itself feels completely contemporary in terms of language, characters, descriptions. It just happens to take place in the 11th century. Readers who expect to find themselves in a medieval world will be disappointed. But if a plot full of twists and turns is intriguing enough to make up for that, the book certainly delivers.

Anderson claims that he based the plot on the actual manuscript written by one of his main characters, a monk named Nicephorus. Nicephorus did indeed write down a contemporary description of the "translation" of St. Nicholas' relics from Myra to Bari in the 11th century; however, the historical monk was not part of this adventure himself.  That's a minor quibble considering the other departures from history that are taken in these pages. To be fair, Anderson has made it clear he has no intention of giving an accurate recreation of a particular time and place. Instead, he wants to tell the rollicking story of stealing holy relics. His interest is in a good yarn.

The book opens with a crowd in Bari rushing to see a dog-headed man. The reader rushes along with them, curious about what will actually be found.

"The dog-man was seated at the table next to some sort of Tartar. Both were dressed in old brocade qabas, scalded with sea salt and smudged with labor. The Tartar ate with his hands, like all decent men did. The dog-man had brought with him a weird metal claw on a stalk which held the meat down with three tines as he cut with a knife."

The fork is given more description than the dog-man, so the reader never discovers whether this is some kind of unique creature or simply a man with very heavy jowls. These kinds of alluring descriptions that aren't followed up are sprinkled throughout the book. But the plot has been started since Nicephorus is part of the dog-ogling crowd.

It turns out the monk has had a dream of Saint Nicholas which is taken as permission to steal his relics from Myra since it is now ruled by infidel Turks rather than by good Christians. When the Tartar who was with the dog-man comes to the abbott offering to bring the body of Saint Nicholas to Bari, he is quickly hired and partnered with Nicephorus for this holy mission.

The rest of the book follows their adventures, interspersed with descriptions of Saint Nicholas' life and miracles. These are the most accurate parts of the narrative, if legends about miracles can be called accurate.

"Once a sailor who was knocked off his ship saw the saint descend and throw down his cloak, and it spread across the tossing waves, growing in compass until the ocean itself was flat brocade. The sailor, astonished, lay swaddled upon this sea of scarlet silk, which was stippled all the way to the horizon with stars and golden Chi-Rhos."

Along with sea battles and political intrigue, the growing relationship between Tyun, the Tartar, and Nicephorus the monk develops into a story of its own. The two swap childhood stories. The details are archaic, but the telling oddly contemporary. There is no relation between the kind of storytelling Chaucer does and that done here. Usually writers try to avoid words that don't fit the period of their story. Anderson feels no such compunction.

"In the janky cloister of Sts. Orestes and Episteme, Nicephorus and Tyun were trapped in the chamber of a thousand faces."

The overall effect can be amusing or jarring. One hopes it will make contemporary readers more comfortable with the archaic story, which is translated, like the relics of St. Nicholas themselves, into a modern love story.