Canadian publisher drops Thélyson Orélien after finding AI traces in his Goncourt-contending novel

The Montreal publisher Les Éditions du Boréal announced Wednesday that it is ending its relationship with Thélyson Orélien, the Haitian writer whose novel C'était ça ou mourir had been in contention for this year's Goncourt and was published in France by Grasset. The house said it will not reprint the book and will not publish any future work by the author, according to Livres Hebdo, Télérama and Le Temps.

The decision marks a sharp reversal. On October 14, Boréal had publicly backed Orélien, saying it had no proof that artificial intelligence had been used in writing the novel and that a publisher's role was to stand by its authors rather than demand evidence from them, Le Temps reported.

That position held for a week. According to the publisher's statement, cited by Bibliobs and Le Temps, Orélien told Boréal he would provide no further material to clear the matter up, prompting the house to commission an outside analysis of all working versions of the manuscript. "The results obtained this week revealed traces of AI tags in the metadata of certain documents," the statement said, adding that the full extent of AI use in the book's creation may never be known.

Boréal said the new findings contradicted repeated assurances from the author that he had never used AI to write the novel. El País noted that the publisher's statement amounts to a direct acknowledgment that AI was involved, after weeks of public uncertainty around the book.