Sometimes you pick up a book at the perfect time in your life to ensure that it truly speaks to you. Personal events over the last week or two have conspired to make this the right moment for me to encounter Allen Levi’s debut novel Theo of Golden. I’m not going to say it’s a masterpiece, or honestly if I think it’s “good” in the most technical sense, but this bittersweet story stuffed to the brim with touching moments proved hard to resist—as were the tears that often welled up throughout.

A mysterious older gentleman named Theo (just Theo, like Madonna or Bono) arrives in the small Georgia town of Golden and sets about exploring its quaint business district. His travels bring him into a coffee house where he discovers both some of the best espresso he’s tasted and walls covered in sketches of the patrons, drawn by local artist Asher Glissen. Theo finds himself unexpectedly moved by them and wonders why the pictured individuals haven’t purchased more of the reasonably priced pieces. Thinking it over he becomes convinced that the works belong with their subjects, or someone close to them, and hatches an unusual plan to buy them one at a time, track down the person pictured, and meet with them in order to present the art as a gift.

His new landlord and fast friend James Ponder cautions him against some of the risks of such a plan, but Theo is determined to push forward and so sets it in motion. Things largely go swimmingly, with most of the town’s residents surprised, delighted, and moved by the gesture, and therefore more than happy to sit on a park bench and chat about their lives with the kindly stranger. As he gets to know and befriend more and more of the citizens of Golden, he becomes a beloved fixture in the town, helping them all to see the best in each other and themselves.

The characters aren’t all that well-drawn, with many being little more than sketches, and the details they are given are pretty typical of popular fiction, but Levi’s easy-flowing prose and fairly brisk pacing keep the pages flying by and the reader’s attention fully engaged. Theo’s folksy platitudes and literary allusions can feel trite and sometimes even preachy, but a good enough percentage resonate to make it feel worthwhile.

Theo, and presumably Levi, operate from the position that there is good in all of us, and across this story’s pages you’ll come to believe it too, even if the ending risks negating the point a little. This isn’t the sort of book that is liable to wind up on a university reading list, but sometimes you need a few hours of cozy charm and sentimental schmaltz to make everything seem just a little bit more bearable and this offers that in spades. In a world that only seems to get angrier every year, we could all strive to be a bit more like Theo. ★★★★