“The monk heard that a ship had arrived carrying one of the dog-headed people whom travelers speak of when they tell tall tales of the one-eyed and the winged, and he went out to the docks to see if it was true. This is how he first laid eyes onto the relic thief; this is how the voyage to steal the corpse of Saint Nicholas began.”
Those are the opening lines to M. T. Anderson’s historical novel Nicked. The story takes place in 1087 when many of the citizens of the Italian city Bari are dying of the pox. The monk Nicephorus is visited by Saint Nicholas in a dream, telling him to serve the sick, but his Abbot interprets it to mean that they should hire Tyun, a treasure hunter, to steal the holy relic bones of Saint Nicholas. The bones are believed to produce a healing oil.
When the story begins Saint Nicholas’ bones reside in Myra, a city several days journey away. Two ships set out to retrieve the bones, hoping to beat a third ship of Venetians who are also interested in them. There ensues a battle at sea, sword fights, subterfuge, and thievery. The story has a bit of a “tongue-in-check” feel to it, but as the afterword states, it is “closely based on real events.”
The book jacket calls it “a swashbuckling saga, a medieval novel noir, a meditation on the miraculous.” If you’ve ever wondered about the validity of the healing powers of holy relics then you must read Nicked by M. T. Anderson.
