It is 4:03 PM. Frantz Duval announces the end of the Livres en Folie day. "Livres en Folie is officially closed. We won't let anyone else enter the site. For those already inside who wish to make purchases, now is the time. Fill out your order forms, go to the publishing houses, pay, and collect your books. Because the in-person part of Livres en Folie at Karibe will come to an end in the next few minutes," declares the editor-in-chief of Le Nouvelliste.

But for the guest of honor, who took a brief break to switch from the blue shirt he wore upon arrival to a white guayabera, his day at Livres en Folie is far from over. Under the tent set up in the hotel courtyard, Prosper Avril, 85 years old, surrounded by his wife and children, continues to sign books. It's 4:35 PM, yet every time, it seems that a new latecomer joins the line in front of him, holding one or several of the author's books.