The interpreting took place at a press conference hosted by Arne Dahl at Athens City Hall. The panel was also attended by the author Petros Markaris, representatives of the Municipality of Athens, organisers of the Athens 2018 World Book Capital event, a representative from Metaichmio Press, the director of the Swedish Institute of Athens, and a representative of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, which was a major donor of the event.
The task was assigned to me by the agency run by my colleague, Emilia Diamantopoulou. As is normal, preparation was done in advance, during which I learned about the author’s background and achievements, the content of his works, his style and manner of writing and the books which have been translated into Greek. During preparation I also watched several interviews in which the author commented among other things on individual aspects of his works, aspects of crime, the characteristics of heroes, the structure of society reflected in his stories, his research methods, his way of working, and so on. Watching television shows, based on adaptations of Arne Dahl’s books, was also an essential part of preparations. Watching those episodes helped me quickly get into the spirit of his works and added a particularly exciting hue to my preparations.
The language combination was English to Greek and Greek to English. English to Greek interpreting was used during Arne Dahl’s speech and comments. Talks, comments and questions posed by other participants were interpreted from Greek to English for Arne Dahl.
