Allen Levi’s debut novel is reminiscent of “The Millionaire,” a 1950s TV show in which a reclusive benefactor donates a million dollars each week to a total stranger. Residents of Golden, Georgia, know their new neighbor only as Theo, who offers them something better than money.

Arriving in the spring, Theo discovers a bar decorated with pencil portraits of Golden citizens. He decides to purchase them, one by one, and get acquainted with each subject. During the interview he presents the handsomely framed portrait to the person. Though the subjects react with varying degrees of bafflement and suspicion, Theo’s gentle nature mollifies most of them, with the result that he becomes a positive influence in the community.

By this clever premise, Levi introduces us to people whose very ordinariness makes them seem extraordinary. Theo treats his newfound friends with a degree of respect bordering on worship. They include Minnette, unhappy because she has spent her life trying to please an overbearing father; Tony, a Vietnam veteran whose bookstore never seems to have any customers; Kendrick, a custodian struggling to support himself and his injured daughter; Ellen, a homeless woman possessing great intellect and a bicycle named The Noble Invention; and Simone, a budding cellist.

There’s a saccharine aspect to this novel that makes Theo and some of his acquaintances almost too good to be plausible. But you can’t help wishing that life everywhere could be as agreeable as it seems in Theo’s world. Predictably, bad things happen even in Golden to bring the reader back to Earth.

Theo of Golden is a parable of promise that there’s a core of goodness in most people, and that we have the power to summon it forth. Be warned that the story contains a few mildly offensive words and some violence.

Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.