Nicked audiobook by M.T. Anderson
Narrated by Euan Morton
NPR Notable Book
AN NPR NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • 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.
Professional Reviews
AudioFile Magazine praises Euan Morton's narration:
"Euan Morton sounds like he's having a grand time narrating this strange and strangely endearing story set in the eleventh century. Tyun, a relic hunter, and Nicephorus, a monk who has had a (possibly) prophetic dream, set off with a motley crew on a sometimes madcap, often funny adventure to steal the bones of Saint Nicholas and bring them back to Bari. As the city's Norman administrator, Morton growls in a French accent, and his performance as a puffed-up Venetian princeling, a rival to their expedition, is a highlight. Intimate moments between Tyun and Nicephorus will have listeners rapt."
Critical Praise
Publishers Weekly (starred review): "Anderson stocks the exhilarating narrative with sea battles, comely spies, duels, and double crosses, and succeeds at transporting the reader back to 11th-century Italy and Byzantium. Readers will be swept up in this marvelous adventure."
Kirkus Reviews (starred review): "In a novel this funny, it would be all too easy to let an omniscient, present-day narrator earn laughs at the expense of its characters' outdated beliefs, but Anderson instead approaches the medieval with curiosity and compassion. An always entertaining and unexpectedly poignant adventure as rare and gleaming as a reliquary."
The New York Times Book Review: "An uproarious saga, drawing on contemporary accounts, fantastical folk tales, and Anderson's own knack for high jinks."
NPR: "A rollicking comic novel."
About M.T. Anderson
M.T. Anderson is the award-winning and bestselling author of many books for children and young adults, including Feed, which was a National Book Award finalist, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party, which won a National Book Award and was a Michael L. Printz Honor Book.
Known for his versatility across genres, Anderson has written historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and literary works that challenge readers to think deeply about society, technology, and human nature. His work is celebrated for its intelligence, wit, and fearless engagement with complex themes.