Hey, it's MPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. I think it's actually really hard to write a funny book.

There are funny moments in books and some funny lines in books, but to write a ha ha funny book is an ambitious goal as any.

But M.T. Anderson is going for it. His new novel is titled Nicked, and it has a pretty interesting premise, following an unlikely pair teaming up to steal the bones of St. Nicholas.

He talked to M.P.R. Scott Simon, about how he was interested in exploring this idea of miracles and how there's a certain joy to believing in something, even if you know it's impossible.

That's ahead.

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Imagine Ocean's 11 of the 11th century. Let's ask M.T. Anderson to read from his new novel about how a heist to swipe the remains of

St. Nicholas began. In an age of sickness, in a time of rage, in an epoch when tyrants take their

seats beneath the white domes of capitals, I call upon St. Nicholas, gift giver, lightbringer,

wonder worker, who saved the living from drowning

and pasted together the dead from their pickling jars, who even after death gave of himself in medicinal ooze.

I ask St. Nicholas to tell us a tale to pass a winter night, so that when we rise in the morning,

we may feel resolute in the new dawn.

I will tell the story of the heist of St. Nicholas's body from its tomb. I will tell it as it was

told to me by musicians and drunkards and guidebooks and lovers. Though I am an unbeliever,

I pray for faith. Nick is the title of M.T. Anderson's new novel, and M.T. Anderson

has written stories for adults, children and teens. His book, Elf Dog, and Owlhead just won a

Newberry Award, and he's won the National Book Award. Join us now from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Thanks so much for being with us. I'm delighted to be here. I guess this is your first novel for adults, right?

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