A recently-widowed doctor, stunned by grief, retreats to a cabin on Montana's Rocky Mountain Front. Inside she has a puppy and a stack of letters from an old lover. Outside, there's a bear. As she revisits the letters from Tom Connor, we come to see, through his eyes, the dusty, broken alleys of Central America during the war years. The two narratives taken together explore themes of life-long love, about what we can see only when we are ready to see, and how hope can grow in the darkest of places. The third in what the author sees as his "homecoming trilogy" (after Hunger in American and Ben Armstrong's Strange Trip Home), Tom Connor's Gift shines a light on the transformative act of storytelling itself, and is destined to be received as one of the most important novels of the year.

David Allan Cates's Tom Connor's Gift is extraordinary. The prose is ravishing, the characters are surprising and irresistible, and many of its scenes are so intensely moving that they bring tears of gratitude and pleasure. The book praises long marriage and long friendship, but what I especially appreciate about its vision is how sexually liberating it is for both men and women. Cates is a fierce and fearless writer! One finishes this novel feeling wiser, more alive, and spiritually refreshed.
David Huddle

Sadness and madness, grief and delirium. Tom Connor's Gift delivers us precious monsters: our first true love and our true lasting love. Coursing between anecdote and musing, this is a novel only grownups can understand. It is smart and ecstatic and will break your goddamn heart.
Bryan Di Salvatore

David Allan Cates evokes the human heart out of the landscape, blending the two with so much subtlety and skill that the very world in this novel shimmers with yearning. Tom Connor is as complex and fascinating a character as I have read in contemporary fiction, and Cates has an uncanny ability to evoke the beautiful and terrifying, the feverish and gritty Central American world Connor travels through. Tom Connor's Gift is a journey into the heart of two continents-and the continent of the human heart-an exploration of dissolution and loyalty, naivet� and cynicism, grief and renewal. In this novel, they all find their place.
Kent Myers

Tom Connor's Gift is the gift we all seek, the gift of love in the face of grief, violence, loss, and heartbreak. In a deeply felt and vividly told story, David Cates connects the interior lives of a farm woman in the wilderness grieving her husband's death and her long-lost lover-a wandering man torn by the beauties and terrors of Central America.
Annick Smith

Tom Connor's Gift is a fearless and instructive odyssey into the rustic places of the heart that still baffle and dictate our lives.
Rick DeMarinis

Tom Connor's Gift is a gift all right-hilarious and moving-a two for one: two voices, two stories, two struggles to come to terms with love and longing, in prose that is vivid, urgent, brave, and true.
Dinah Lenney

Put a widow in a cabin at the edge of Montana's Rocky Mountain Front with nothing but memories and a marauding bear outside to keep her company and what do you get? A tenderly-told tale of grief, recovery, and a message of love from the past. David Allan Cates's Tom Connor's Gift is indeed a gift to readers looking for a novel that will ask them to slow down and think about questions like "How do we endure suffering? And how-when life has flung us far and wide-how do we get home again?"
David Abrams

Tom Connor's Gift is a wonderful book, standing on its tiptoes, stretching out its fingers to brush against a magical realism that is transformative.
Mark Metcalf

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Store Description

ThriftBooks is a fully independent seller of used books, having sold more than 160 million used and new books since we started in 2003. Each quality used book is sorted, graded, shelved and shipped by hand by our team of dedicated employees in our seven warehouses across the US. We have the best selection of books, in the right condition and format, at everyday low prices. We also have a dedicated, US-based Customer Service team, ranked in the top three by Newsweek for Best Customer Service in 2018 and 2019, so you can shop with confidence. We support and invest in our employees, appreciate and value our customers, and truly believe in the power of the written word to educate, energize, and engage readers of all ages and interests.

Visit Seller's Storefront

Seller's business information

Thrift Books Global LLC
18300 Cascade Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98188, U.S.A.

Sale & Shipping Terms

Terms of Sale

We guarantee each book that we send you. If you have any problems, please contact
our dedicated customer service department. They will do everything possible to
ensure you are happy with your order.

Right of withdrawal

If you are a consumer you can withdraw from the contract in accordance with the following. Consumer means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession.

Information regarding the right of withdrawal

Statutory right to withdraw

You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires, physical possession of the last good or the last lot or piece.

To exercise the right of withdrawal, electronically fill in and submit a clear statement on our website, under "My Purchases" in "My Account". We will communicate to you an acknowledgement of receipt of such a withdrawal on a durable medium (e.g. by e-mail) without delay.

To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.

Effects of withdrawal

If you withdraw from this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the supplementary costs arising if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).

We may make a deduction from the reimbursement for loss in value of any goods supplied, if the loss is the result of unnecessary handling by you.

We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract.

We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.

We may withhold reimbursement until we have received the goods back, or you have supplied evidence of having sent back the goods, whichever is the earliest.

You shall send back the goods or hand them over to ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A., without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which you communicate your withdrawal from this contract to us. The deadline is met if you send back the goods before the period of 14 days has expired. You will have to bear the direct cost of returning the goods. You are only liable for any diminished value of the goods resulting from the handling other than what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods.

Exceptions to the right of withdrawal

The right of withdrawal does not apply to:

The delivery of newspapers, journals or magazines with the exception of subscription contracts; and
The supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium (e.g. on a CD or DVD) if you accepted when you placed your order that we could start to deliver it, and that you could not withdraw once delivery had started.

Shipping Terms

All domestic Standard and Expedited shipments are distributed from our warehouses by OSM, then handed off to the USPS for final delivery.

2-Day Shipping is delivered by FedEx, which does not deliver to PO boxes.

International shipments are tendered to the local postal service in the destination country for final delivery – we do not use courier services for international deliveries.

Shipping rates within U.S.A.

Shipping rates within U.S.A.
Order quantity	4 to 8 business days	4 to 8 business days
First item	� 0.00	� 0.00

Delivery times are set by sellers and vary by carrier and location. Orders passing through Customs may face delays and buyers are responsible for any associated duties or fees. Sellers may contact you regarding additional charges to cover any increased costs to ship your items.