An elderly gentleman, Theo arrives in the town of Golden. No-one knows who he is or anything about his background let alone why he has turned up.

He soon becomes a presence when entering a café, he sees a number of portraits for sale by a local artist. He decides to purchase them one at a time and give them to the person in the painting.

He quickly becomes embroiled in peoples lives by his kindness, generosity and friendship.

It’s a lovely idea that a person who has lived a long life can give something back to people in the form of art imparting wisdom along the way.

Levi takes us on a journey with each portrait involving the reader in the lives of the recipient as well as a growing appreciation for the kindness of this one elderly man.

However, I was disturbed about themes about illegal immigrants and anti-abortion and the underlying sense of disapproval. After a while the bestowal of the paintings and the recipients life story became a little repetitive and I found myself losing interest on occasion with some of the characters. Perhaps some editing may have helped. The last quarter of the book was better bringing everything together with a few surprises.

It’s a highly rated book and for many it does resonate, but for me that wasn’t consistent enough. The writing at times was a little too flowery, the characters were too real to be true and it almost felt like a series of fables. The argument for religion appeared to become more heavy handed as the novel progressed. There was even a sermon which really was hardly warranted. I wasn’t expecting a Christian fictional novel.

I did like it but I didn’t love it. Maybe my expectations were too high after the hype.