Theo of Golden

THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING PHENOMENON

'A word-of-mouth smash hit' New York Times

'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.'

One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…

His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance – or has he? He visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits by a local artist of the people of Golden. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their 'rightful owners'. With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered.

A story of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another.

Allen grew up in Columbus, Georgia, attended University of Georgia for degrees in English and Law, and worked as an attorney from 1980 to 1990. He left law practice for two years in 1990, moved to Scotland, and, while there, received a degree in Scottish fiction from the University of Edinburgh. He returned home, resumed law practice for three years, and finally ventured into vocational music in 1996.

Since then, he has worked as a traveling musician, sharing his whimsical, thought-provoking brand of songwriting and storytelling to audiences across the U.S. He has over twenty albums to his credit, as well as hundreds of other unpublished songs.

In 2014, he published The Last Sweet Mile, a memoir of the close friendship he shared with his brother, Gary, who died in 2012. He also wrote and published a children’s book, Oliviatown, adapted from a song of the same title.

Allen published his first novel, Theo of Golden, in 2023 and is currently working on its sequel, Ellen of Golden.

When not reading or writing, Allen, cares for family acreage where he lives with his father, spends time with family nearby, keeps a full schedule of involvement in the small community around him, and dreams of being an artist someday.