This book took me, and the publishing world, by surprised. Candidly, I wasn't expecting to like it and worried that it would be completely smarmy and self righteous. It was self published in 2025 but only really took off this year. The story follows Theo, an elderly man who travels to Golden, a small town in Georgia. He visits the local coffeehouse, where he sees portraits of the townspeople on the wall. The artist is also a local artist - said artist lives in Golden as well. Theo decides to purchase the portraits and distribute them to the subject of the portraits. With each meeting, he collects their stories and they are inspired by his kindness.
What I loved about this book is that it deals with several important themes: the importance of slowing down and observing, being kind, loss and grieving and love among others and it does so in a captivating way. I loved Theo as a character - his background is very mysterious but what he does for the people he comes into contact with is very laudable and to be admired. It's a timely reminder of the importance of kindness. I did wish that there was some conflict or other tension, which would have made the book more interesting, and I could have done with less of the religious stuff, but those were both minor, nit picky things on my part.
I flew through this book in about two days. Definitely worth the read and I may read it again to make sure I caught everything!
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