In the summer of 2009, the prestigious Greek publishing house “Kastaniotis Editions” (www.kastaniotis.com) published a Greek translation of the book “A Summer Affair” by the Czech writer Ivan Klíma. The book was translated into Greek by Dr. Soňa Dorňáková-Stamu. On the occasion of publishing a Greek translation of a book by the world-famous and popular Czech author, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Greece invited Ivan Klíma to Athens and in co-operation with the Kastaniotis Editions organised a literary evening and a discussion with the author.

The literary evening and presentation of the Greek translation of the book took place on 10 November 2009 in Athens, in the cultural centre of the publishing house “Kastaniotis Editions” – “104 Centre of Culture and Arts”. Anteos Chrysostomides, Head of the Foreign Literature Department of the Kastaniotis Editions, welcomed the guests and presented the main persons of the evening. Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Greece, Hana Mottlová, greeted the guests and thanked the Kastaniotis Editions for including high-quality modern Czech literature in their publishing plans. Further she expressed the hope that the Editions would continue this strategy and present great examples of Czech literary work to Greek readers. The translator of the book, Dr. Soňa Dorňáková-Stamu, then spoke briefly about how the book attracted her attention and why she chose to translate it. The main programme of the literary evening and the discussion with Ivan Klíma was moderated by the distinguished Greek writer and renowned literary critic Nikos Kounenis. He first presented the author and then focused on the content and main characters of the book, their lives, internal feelings and crucial decisions, without disclosing the plot of the book for those who had not read it. Afterwards, the famous and outstanding Greek actress Katerina Didaskalou flawlessly read two wonderful extracts from the book. The entertaining discussion, which followed, covered not only the plot and the main characters of the novel, but the political situation in the previous socialistic Czechoslovakia and the experience and feelings of Ivan Klíma relating to those times. The guests were also interested about the present situation in the Czech Republic, asking questions abouttopics as diverse as celebrations of the 20^th anniversary of the Fall of the Iron Curtain in central and eastern Europe and the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon in the Czech Republic.

The evening ended with a book signing by Ivan Klíma and a reception in the foyer of the cultural centre.

The literary evening was held in Greek, with consecutive translation between Czech and Greek provided. Approximately 120 guests attended consisting mostly of representative of Greek literary and artistic circles and the Czech-Greek community living in Athens.

Ivan Klíma is well known and popular in Greece. As demonstrated by the fact that the book “A Summer Affair” is his sixth book translated into Greek (previous Greek translations of his books were “Judge of Trial” (Odysseas, 1995), “Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light” (Odysseas, 1997), “Love and Garbage” (Alexandreia, 1998), “The Ultimate Intimacy” (Travlos, 1999) and “No Saints or Angels” (Kedros, 2007), and also by the enormous interest shown by the media in the author.

PHOTO 1: Ivan Klíma (photo Spiros D. Katopodis, View Photo Agency)
PHOTO 2: Ivan Klíma and Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Greece, Hana Mottlová (photo Spiros D.
Katopodis, View Photo Agency)
PHOTO 3: From the event (photo Spiros D. Katopodis, View Photo Agency)
PHOTO 4: Book signing (photo Spiros D. Katopodis, View Photo Agency)