“Intriguing. Hardboiled. Cinematic. We Were the Bullfighters is a truly fine romp of a novel!” Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, author of Wait Softly Brother
“Miller’s writing effectively combines the flawed heroes and unsentimental settings of hard-boiled crime fiction with an economical style that creates bold, memorable images of both [Ernest Hemingway and Red Ryan] on their parallel journeys.” Sarah Johnson, Historical Fiction Society Reviews
“In bringing Hemingway and Ryan together, Miller creates a vivid portrait of life after the First World War. Her prose is rich with details and imagery…Above all, We Were The Bullfighters presents an important writer on the cusp of greatness, struggling with his job, family, and literary dreams… Inspired by Hemingway’s notebooks and [Hadley] Richardson’s letters, Miler imagines the early influence a famed Canadian gamgster might have had on the American writer. Hemingway and Ryan were both ambitious, defiant figures who speak to the restlessness of the early 1920’s.” Sharon Hamilton, Literary Review of Canada.
“We Were The Bullfighters is a skillfully written, action-packed historical tale about Hemingway at a significant but vulnerable transition point. At the same time, it’s a nuanced portrait of a literary giant that will contribute to the canon of writing about him.” Bev Sandell Greenberg, The Winnipeg Free Press
“On his first day of work, [Toronto Daily Star Editor] Hindmarsh sent Hemingway on a night train to Kingston to cover the story of five convicts who escaped from the penitentiary, including the already notorious bank robber Norman “Red” Ryan. Author Marianne Miller came across this information while researching what was meant to be a non-fiction book about the famous author’s time in Toronto…What Miller felt was missing in her research … was not knowing how either Hemingway or Ryan felt. So she decided to get at their emotional truths by writing a novel. To begin, “I put Ernest, exhausted and stressed out, on the late train to Kingston, thinking about covering a story about these guys who had the guts to go over a 20-foot wall while people shot at them.” …Miller discovered a scribble in a notebook, made while Hemingway was trying to figure out what to write after The Sun Also Rises…he was considering a novel about “Red” Ryan …[S]he was on the right track.” Janet Somerville, The Toronto Star
A window into Canada's role in the making of Ernest Hemingway in clear, clean prose. Lee Gowan, author of The Beautiful Place
“In her debut novel, Marianne K. Miller renders a little-explored time in Hemingway’s life with the accurate eye of the Hemingway scholar she happens to be, but also with boldness and keen imagination. I turned every page of We Were the Bullfighters with great pleasure and enthusiasm.” Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife
“In this wonderful story, the young Ernest Hemingway is a Toronto Daily Star reporter who feels a strange connection to legendary bank robber, Red Ryan. Miller’s expertise on Hemingway and her penetrating observations about our responsibilities to our talents makes this a must-read historical fiction in which “artists are like convicts” and people choose what they will sacrifice for freedom.” Kim Echlin, author of Speak, Silence
“We Were The Bullfighters alternates between the two story lines, giving Hemingway and Red Ryan equal billing. It makes for a fascinating page-turning read , and Ms Miller is successful in creating a hard-boiled, succinct writing style that suits the mood of the times and the toughness of both a criminal on the run and a writer trying to scrape by on a job and in a place he doesn’t want to be…Perhaps Miller thought writing a novel with Hemingway and Ryan as as the main protagonists was taking a risk, but it certainly proved worth taking, and kudos to Dundurn Press for publishing it. Fans of Crime fiction would enjoy this novel and one doesn’t have to be familiar with Hemingway’s early years to be entertained by We Were The Bullfighters. Recommended” James Fisher, The Seaboard Review
“Marianne Miller brings a deceptively light touch to this evocative and finely researched story of a colourful moment in the life of a burgeoning literary giant. With efficient language that Hemingway would have liked, she gives us a rollicking tale of escaped convicts on the run from Kingston Pen, and the young Toronto crime reporter in pursuit of a story and a literary path. We Were the Bullfighters wonderfully captures the character of Hemingway and the atmosphere of Toronto in the 1920s.” J.R. McConvey, author of Different Beasts
Skillfully capturing the wild, rum-running 1920s, Marianne Miller creates a fascinating, fictionalized tale of two men fighting to break free; one a young Hemingway dreaming of his first great novel and the other, a daring bank robber on the run from Kingston Penitentiary. Barbara Fradkin, author of the Inspector Green and Amanda Doucette mysteries.
