Haitian writer Thélyson Orélien enters race for France’s Prix Goncourt

Haitian-born novelist Thélyson Orélien has landed on the first selection list for France’s Prix Goncourt, the country’s most prestigious literary award, for his debut novel “C’était ça ou mourir”. The Académie Goncourt unveiled its 16-book opening list on September 2, with further cuts expected on October 6 and October 27 before a winner is named.

Published in March by Quebec’s Éditions du Boréal, the book became the best-selling title in the publisher’s 63-year history, sparking a bidding war that sent its rights to roughly twenty countries. Grasset released the French edition on August 19, and the novel has already won the Prix Méduse and the Prix Strasbourg Espoir CIC, while remaining a finalist for the Prix du Roman Fnac.

A place on the Goncourt list puts Orélien in rare company, few Haitian-born writers have ever reached this stage of France’s oldest and most closely watched literary prize.

Orélien, born in Gonaïves in 1988, left Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and eventually settled in Canada, first in Montreal and then Ottawa. His novel follows Jonas Dorléon, a Port-au-Prince history teacher who flees gang violence with nothing but a plastic shopping bag, embarking on a perilous journey through the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Brazil and the United States toward Quebec.