A Holy Relic, the Mafia and Two Guys from Brooklyn: Scarsdale’s Michael Serby Publishes First Novel

Former Scarsdale resident and Psychiatrist Michael Serby recently published his first novel: The Holy Nail.

Here’s the story according to Kirkus Reviews:

It’s 1945 and World War II is effectively over in Europe. Two American GIs, Nick Genova and Joe Cohen, have fought their way up the Italian Peninsula and are now on leave in Milan. The two New Yorkers are so close that they’re known as a single unit called “Brooklyn.” Nick has heard about a local relic known as the Holy Nail—supposedly one of those used to nail Jesus Christ to the cross. The pair, with help of Maria Bravia, an antifascist and a stone-cold killer, steal it from the Duomo, the cathedral of Milan. Now the game is afoot. Do they sell it? Bargain with the Catholic Church to ransom it?

Eventually the police, the Mafia (both in Naples and New York), and the Vatican are all drawn into the fray. Later, “Brooklyn” is repatriated to Brooklyn, where they’re still trying to get rid of the Nail, and hopefully profit from their crime. It does not go well, as dealings with the Mafia seldom do. However, there is a final, intriguing fillip to the tale, involving the Nail and one of Joe’s relations, just in case readers had gotten too smug.

Any novel about holy relics, and particularly a satirical one such as this, must grapple with the fact that holy relics have been a booming business for scammers for centuries. The Holy Nail is an actual object that resides today at the Duomo in Milan, where it’s presumably shown to the faithful once a year—but this novel amusingly throws it into doubt, as if to ask what a reader going to believe: the skeptics or their own eyes? (The belief that Jesus’ foreskin is preserved in some church somewhere—briefly mentioned in the text—need not detain readers.) A final plot turn leaves readers with a wonderful theological teaser about the power of faith and feels as if Serby has set out to gleefully blow up his own satire.

Kirksu Review says, “Serby’s caper novel about the theft of a sacred relic offers wry entertainment with ruminative underpinnings.”

What led Serby to becoming an author?

Here’s is what he told Scarsdale10583:

“My first serious exposure to literature occurred in high school (Savannah Country Day School) thanks to a brilliant English teacher named John Dunn. He introduced his students to Shakespeare, Kafka, Melville, Conrad and, yes, John Donne. Our own writing was practiced and perfected under his tutelage. When I attended college at Emory I majored in English. I thought briefly of becoming an English teacher but decided instead to attend medical school to pursue a career in Psychiatry.

After med school I left the South, interned, and served in the Indian Health Service in Oklahoma during the Vietnam War. I then travelled for one year before moving to NYC for a psychiatry residency at NYU/Bellevue. I became a clinician, researcher, and academic administrator. I wrote dozens of articles in the psychiatric and medical literature during my professional career. I also married another doctor, Susan, and we raised three boys in Scarsdale.

I retired six years ago. The decision to try my hand at creative writing was inevitable. I had observed so many lives and stories over the years. I started publishing short stories and ultimately decided to write a novel.

Years ago, we were in Milan and toured its stunning cathedral, where I learned of the Duomo’s treasure—a holy nail from the crucifix. As a secular person, I was struck by widespread reverence for this object. Years later I decided to write a novel about the relic. What emerged is The Holy Nail, the story of its theft at a time when the cathedral was partly destroyed by war. The setting of Milan at the end of World War Two leads to untethered forces struggling to own the valuable holy artifact. The U.S. Army, the highest level of Church authority, local and international investigators, Communists, Mafiosi, and two guys from Brooklyn all intersect in this tale.

I am now writing a second novel about the Civil War. The cast of characters, an array of inexplicable decisions, the central role of race, the emergence of Lincoln, the introduction to modern warfare—all are choice issues for fictional speculation.”

Purchase your copy of the Holy Nail here: