We Were the Bullfighters

FINALIST, 2025 BEST FIRST NOVEL, CRIME WRITERS OF CANADA AWARD

"A window into Canada's role in the making of Ernest Hemingway in clear, clean prose." - Lee Gowan, author of The Beautiful Place

We Were the Bullfighters takes us back to 1923, where a young Ernest Hemingway, struggling with the responsibilities of marriage and unexpected fatherhood, has made a significant life change. He decided that for his baby's first year, he would interrupt his fledgling writing career in Paris and move his family to North America. Now, no longer a freelancer, he finds himself with a gruelling job and a difficult boss as a staff reporter for the Toronto Daily Star. On his first day, feeling already hemmed in by circumstances, he's sent to cover a prison break at Kingston Pen.

The escaped convicts, led by notorious bank robber Norman "Red" Ryan, are on the run. They make their way from the bush north of Kingston to the streets of Toronto, and then through towns and cities across the United States. Their crimes become more brazen, and their lifestyle increasingly glamorous. Growing more and more preoccupied with Ryan and his willingness to risk everything to be free, Hemingway ponders duty, freedom, and what prevents a man from pursuing his dreams.