Quebec publisher shelves a second novel by Thélyson Orélien

Éditions du Boréal received a manuscript by Thélyson Orélien on gang violence in Haiti in December 2024 and signed a contract for it. No publication is planned "at the moment," the Quebec publisher said Friday.

Why it waited

The publisher said it first held off because the book was close in theme to Dany Laferrière's L'Obsession du rouge. It then chose to publish C'était ça ou mourir first and put the other manuscript off indefinitely.

On Tuesday, Orélien again denied using artificial intelligence to write C'était ça ou mourir, a prize contender, but admitted plagiarizing other authors.

"Of course there are discussions that should take place about this next book and the plagiarism allegations, because it's something we take seriously."

— Renaud Roussel, Éditions du Boréal