"It was that or die", the Special Report on asylum seekers
Jean Numa Goudou ·
"Instead of doing a report that would last a few days in the media, there are so many reports on the subject, but a work like this will endure," explains the author in an interview with In Texto.
Arriving in Quebec in 2010, following the earthquake in Haiti, Thélyson Orélien went through the mechanisms of integration organizations like any good immigrant. The wave of asylum seekers arriving from the United States starting in 2017 inspired him, moved him to the point that he wanted to give back to those who followed.
He became actively involved in organizations welcoming Haitian immigrants who needed help with just about everything. And it was by discussing with them, about their journeys, that the author of "C'était ça ou mourir" understood that there were human stories there that needed to be immortalized.
Like many young people in Haiti, Thelyson Orélien dabbled with the muse and subsequently wrote chronicles on all subjects. Because, he says, "I believe in the power of literature." "Initially, I wanted to do a report for Radio France, but, at a certain point, there are so many things that come out about these personal stories that I tell myself I'll have to go further than that."
"Instead of doing a report that would last a few days in the media, there are so many reports on the subject, but a work like this will endure," explains the author in an interview with In Texto.
What was supposed to be an impulse of heart and generosity on his part became a literary success. The romanticized story of this book came to him by discussing with asylum seekers and questioning them.
"We were told about migratory flows, but never about the human story behind them," deplores the author. The question was whether to conduct investigations, write chronicles or produce a major report, but it's the novel that won out. "We can create fiction, but that would be disrespectful to the lived experience of these people," believes Thelyson Orélien.
Politicians are fighting over it
"I bought the book to give as a gift to the Quebec Liberal Party leader, Charles Milliard, recounts Viau MNA Frantz Benjamin, but he told me: thank you, Frantz, but I've already read it." The Liberal MNA hosted a discussion with the author last Friday at Maison d'Haïti before a hundred people of all political stripes. Several Parti québécois (PQ) activists attended.
Released just two months ago, "C'était ça ou mourir" is part of the top-10 bestselling books in Quebec bookstores. It will be translated into at least 25 languages worldwide and Radio-Canada has already purchased the rights for an audio version on its Ohdio platform for the visually impaired. It can be purchased digitally.
"I didn't expect this. These are texts I wrote in a corner of a table, in complete solitude, and that they manage to interest readers around the world, no, I didn't expect that," confides Thelyson Orélien who says he is "in the present moment, living through this thing."
"I don't know what effect this has today," he concludes humbly. Thelyson Orélien is reminiscent of Dany Laferrière, a former journalist turned novelist who is highly appreciated in Quebec. "He's an author I adore, I love his writing. I want to thank him for paving the way before us," responds the young novelist when we point out that he is following in Dany's footsteps today. The novel will be released on August 19 by Grasset, in France. Then it will be Germany and a series of countries around the world.
Excerpt from the novel
When gunshots and flames in the streets of Carrefour-Feuilles order him to leave, Jonas Dorléon takes almost nothing with him: his diploma, a notebook of poems, a photo of his mother and clean underwear. His entire life in a plastic bag. Taking refuge first on the Dominican side of the border, he waits in Haiti's antechamber for things to calm down. Except things don't calm down. He must walk, again, always. Become a migrant. From Brazil to Mexico, he covers kilometers, always clutching his plastic bag against him, sometimes aboard an overheated bus, sometimes in the depths of the jungle with other undocumented people who, around him, fall one after another. When he finally reaches the United States border, ICE agents are waiting for him. Jonas has only one objective left: leave this country that has nothing "great again" about it and reach Canada via Roxham Road, that saving path he has heard so much about.
Thélyson Orélien's abundant and poetic pen brings forth beauty in the darkest zones of human experience. He speaks the language of exile, that language learned "without grammar, without dictionary, just with bones and skin." Above all, he reveals a terrible and violent America on which our gaze must linger.
Publication: March 10, 2026, 270 pages ISBN-13: 9782764629253 Barcode: 9782764629253
Thélyson Orélien
Born in Gonaïves, Thélyson Orélien is a Quebec writer of Haitian origin, whose work explores the bridges between memory, exile and belonging. Poet, novelist and columnist, he writes with luminous simplicity about shifting identities and human survivals.