Thélyson Orélien is a writer, columnist, originally from Haiti and living in Canada since 2010. His first award-winning novel It Was That or Die[1] (2026) is a worldwide success.
Jonas Dorléon fights to leave, to go beyond borders. Surpassing yourself is the key word: “Before understanding the seasons, I understood movement. Forced movement. I come from a country where time does not advance in months, but in jolts” (p. 254). It is in this spirit that the novel is constructed. From trial to trial, from thrill to thrill, the main character follows his path to achieve his goal. Experience challenges and places great interest in human relationships, so as not to have the feeling of solitude: “When you drift between Peru and Ecuador, at midnight on a DIY raft, fraternity is a useless luxury. All you want is not to die (p. 113).
Try to stay standing
Deciding to leave your country is a way of accepting the different adventures that are yet to come. That is to say, braving the difficulties encountered by being strong, essentially morally. Not taking into account the various pains that can result from humiliation: “I was in a temporary detention center (…) A room without humanity, we called it a “reception center. » (p. 203).
Emigrating is a way of dying in your own country and being reborn elsewhere. You still have to be able to keep your dignity, given the brutal change that can slap the emigrant in the face.
It Was That or Die is a novel worth exploring, all the unfounded criticism notwithstanding. The reader must pay attention to the text and not to the gossip.
Lamia Bereksi Meddahi
[1] It was that or die | Thélyson Orélien | Editions Grasset | 2026 | 267 pages