At 74, Michigan Author Finishes Second Novel

Nathan Menoian, a 74-year-old Michigan author and former newspaper reporter, has completed his second novel, "By the Book," less than two years after undergoing triple-bypass heart surgery. The Milford-based writer published his debut novel at age 70 and now describes himself as proof that faith, and fiction, can arrive late in life. The book is available on Amazon.

From Newsroom to Novelist

Menoian's path to fiction ran through decades of journalism. Born and raised in Michigan with three sisters, he earned a journalism degree from Oakland University in 1978 after an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy. He went on to work as a reporter, editor, feature writer, and publisher of a regional business magazine, writing several hundred articles over the course of his career.

His path was not a straight line. In 1985 he stepped away from journalism for 13 years to work in retail advertising before returning to business reporting in 1998. Fiction, he has said, stayed in the back of his mind through all of it, eventually surfacing as his 2021 debut, "A Simple Matter of Hope and Joy," which follows a nonbelieving middle-aged businessman whose faith shifts after meeting a woman of faith.

Menoian resumed a daily walking habit while recovering from his cardiac surgery, and it was on one of those walks that a phrase came to him describing his unusual career arc.

"I'm a late-in-life novelist."

— Nathan Menoian, author

A Slow, Uneven Conversion in Fiction

"By the Book" centers on Barbara Mary Shaw, a world-famous author with no faith of her own until, in Menoian's telling, God begins making Himself known to her. Rather than a sudden change of heart, the novel traces a gradual and unsteady transformation as Shaw adopts what Menoian calls a "biblical view of the world" — a shift that costs her some friendships even as other relationships hold.

Menoian has framed both of his novels around the same conviction: that faith can reach people at any stage of life, from teenagers to seniors, regardless of where they started. He draws a sharp line between self-reliance and the kind of faith his characters, and he himself, have leaned on through hardship.

"Without God, I wouldn't have made it even this far."

— Nathan Menoian, author

Menoian became a born-again Christian in his mid-twenties while in college, decades before he put any of it into fiction. The announcement of "By the Book" was distributed through The Times Publishers, the company handling his media outreach.

A Genre With Room to Grow

Menoian's second book arrives at a moment of renewed momentum for faith-based fiction. Trade coverage of the category has found that by 2017, Christian fiction sales had turned around and have been trending upward since, with some publishers and editors crediting readers seeking stories without the graphic content common in general-market fiction. Self-publishing has also widened the field, with industry estimates finding that 36% of Christian authors now choose to self-publish, utilizing the flexibility of digital platforms, giving writers a more direct route to readers.

That backdrop does not change the facts of Menoian's own story: a journalist-turned-novelist publishing his second book in his mid-seventies, built around the same message that runs through his life and recovery. "The world needs more Christian authors writing everyday stories of faith to encourage and inspire readers," he has said of his purpose in writing both novels.

For Menoian, the two novels now form a matched pair — one centered on a skeptical businessman, the other on a famous author — built around the same idea that no one is ever too old, too successful, or too far gone to change course. "By the Book" is now available on Amazon alongside his 2021 debut.