For anyone looking for a feel-good story for their next read, Theo of Golden by Allen Levi should be right at the front of that list. As someone who rarely keeps up with new book releases, I only came across this novel, like so many others, by pure chance and randomness upon searching for a completely different book. This novel presents themes of love, faith, hope, and the pure enjoyment one can get from simply serving others. I have to confess that I had thoughts of dropping the novel towards the beginning, but I am extremely glad to have stuck with it until the very end. It really is one of those novels that rewards you with a warm feeling of happiness and that this world can be so much more than what we make it by simply performing some random acts of kindness for others.

The story seems simple enough. We have a stranger who decided to move to a seemingly random town in a random city. This stranger decides to one day purchase the art portraits of people’s faces hung in the local coffee shop and, more importantly, decides to gift those pictures to those exact strangers whose faces are in the portraits. From there, we read about the daily goings-on and life of Theo during his stay in Golden. We get to read about the friends he meets along with those lives he was able to impact, all while remaining in anonymity. Readers obviously get a sense that Theo is someone of importance, and hints get dropped along the way, but surprisingly, I didn’t really feel an urge to learn of Theo’s real identity. While it does get revealed towards the end of the novel, it wasn’t central to me enjoying the story itself. Heck, I would have been satisfied had they not even revealed his identity at all but rather left it as something for the readers to think about.

“There is another teaching about kindess. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. In other words, do good, but try to do it without notice or hope of reward.” – Theo

If you’re down at the moment, Theo of Golden can be just the cure to lift your spirits some. The fact that he started out in this small town, of which he knows absolutely no one, and is able to impact the lives he did is a joy to read. I had this crazy thought towards the beginning that we’d get to hear each and every personal story of the strangers Theo bestows his portrait gifts upon, but it’s not like that at all. However, I actually did kind of want to hear more of those stories from the strangers and would have wanted the author to tell a couple more of those spread in between chapters. I do believe that some readers might dislike the ending a bit, but I was okay with it. It did come abruptly, and I was definitely not prepared for it.

Living with sadness, accepting it, is easier than trying to pretend it isn’t there. It is another of life’s great mysteries that sadness and joy can coexist so compatibly with one another. – Theo

Go ahead and put Theo of Golden on your to-read list. While you may not need it now, just remember it for when you do experience moments of sadness in your life or when you just need a little uplifting of the spirit.