In this his first novel, Allen Levi tells the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives in Golden, a small town in Georgia situated on the Oxbow River.  Theo artfully dodges all attempts to learn who he is even to the point where nobody knows his last name except for a ‘consultant’ with whom he establishes a fiduciary relationship and from whom he rents a lovely third floor apartment.

Theo proceeds to form important and meaningful relationships with a number of townsfolk including an unhoused and clearly disturbed woman, a street musician, a cello student at the local university, the owners of the Chalice coffee shop, and Asher the portrait artist whose 92 portraits adorn the walls of Chalice.  Theo decides to buy all the portraits and gift them to the person depicted in the drawing, and he proceeds to do so.  The book begins to drag as the portrait gifting goes on and on,  and as the 400th page approaches, it is unclear how Theo’s project will end.  I think it was unclear to Levi as well since he tied up the whole package in way too neatly a manner, rushing headlong to a final conclusion.

The writing is good enough.  The characters are well drawn.  The story is credible to a point, but ultimately, I found the book a bit of a disappointment.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of “Theo” is its history.  What began as a private project for Levi , a prolific songwriter and storyteller who had no intention of publishing the novel, went from that intention to a self-published book at the urging of friends, to a best seller in two years with more than 300,000 copies sold in 2025 and a listing in the New York Times as one of the five surprise hits of the year.  It’s clearly a popular and heart-tugging story, but I still found it a bit overly sentimental and a bit too much.