Theo of Golden: The Self-Published Phenomenon Turned “Word-of-Mouth Smash Hit” 

Theo is “a person that most of us would like to meet (The Book Review Crew). A mysterious yet kindly octogenarian, he arrives in the small southern town of Golden, gets an apartment on the town’s main street, and begins visiting the local coffee shop. 

Dozens of pencil portraits of the town’s residents hang on the walls, drawn by a local artist. Theo begins buying the portraits a few at a time and gifting them to their subjects. All he asks in exchange is that they tell him their story.

In doing so, Theo begins to become part of the lives of the people in Golden, forming friendships and close bonds, including with the artist behind the portraits—someone with whom Theo may already have a secret connection, though the latter doesn’t know it yet.

As he learns the townsfolk’s stories, Theo keeps his own history close to his vest. It isn’t until a tragedy near the end of the book that all is finally revealed. But this isn’t ultimately a book about secrets or mysteries. It’s a feel-good story about community, kindness, giving and receiving. 

It presents “a timely reminder of the importance of slowing down” that is welcome “with our decline in face-to-face interactions these days” (Anne Logan, I’ve Read This).

During his time in Golden, Theo meets and befriends many townsfolk, each with their own stories. These stories and characters make up much of the book, introducing readers to everyone from Tony Wilcox, the owner of the local Verbivore bookstore, to Simone Lavoie, a graduate cello student. Theo also meets a widower whose daughter was injured in a car accident, a young accountant trapped in an unfulfilling career, and Ellen, a local unhoused woman, among others.

Ellen becomes one of Theo’s closest acquaintances after he learns that her daughter Willa was taken from her when Willa was just a baby because Ellen was declared mentally unfit. This helps to strengthen the bond between them, as Theo lost his own daughter some years ago in France—a tragedy that nearly destroyed Theo at the time, and that helps to bring him closer to many of the locals in Golden now.

Theo also gets to know Asher Glissen, the artist whose many portraits line the coffee shop's walls and provide the structure for Theo’s activities in Golden. Theo and Asher share another bond, as well. One that Theo is aware of, but that Asher doesn’t know, not until it may already be too late… 

Born in Alabama and a graduate of the University of Georgia, Allen Levi practiced law for more than a dozen years before studying storytelling at the University of Edinburgh. Since then, he has worked as a traveling musician, including stints with the international Christian youth organization Young Life.

He has recorded more than a dozen albums and written two previous books: Oliviatown, for the Children’s Miracle Network, in 2003, and The Last Sweet Mile, a memoir of his brother Gary, who died of cancer, in 2014. 

In 2023, he self-published Theo of Golden and launched a word-of-mouth publicity campaign that led to sales of over 150,000 copies—earning the book a pickup by major publishers and a spot atop the New York Times bestseller list for more than two dozen weeks.

“Something people have wondered about this novel,” writes Heather Caliendo at Book Club Chat, is whether it’s based on a true story. “But it’s not. Theo and the town of Golden are all fictional. But the novel features very real themes of loneliness, heartbreak, kindness, serving others, closure, and more.”

While Theo of Golden is not a true story, it directly reflects some of author Allen Levi’s own hopes, dreams, and spirituality. On his website, the last paragraph of Allen Levi’s bio says that he “keeps a full schedule of involvement in the small community around him, and dreams of being an artist someday.” 

It also has roots in Levi’s own life. As he told Christianity Today, “One day I was in a coffee shop down in Columbus [Georgia], and the coffee shop has 92 portraits on the wall. They’re all done by a dear friend of mine who is a wonderful artist with a particular gift for portraiture. And I was looking at the portraits, as I always do when I go to this particular shop. And the idea that came to me was Wouldn’t it be a lot of fun and interesting to buy the portraits one at a time and give them to the people who are portrayed in the frames? That became the seed corn for a story.”

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