The Summer Guest by Alison Anderson

Author:Alison Anderson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-03-13T19:00:00+00:00

KATYA WAS ANNOYED: THE translator was worse than an agent. Not to worry . . . wonderful to discuss Zinaida Mikhailovna’s diary. They did not owe her anything other than the fee and a cursory appreciation for her work. They did not owe her tea and cakes—that was for authors, and even then.

Or did they? Katya felt irritable, anxious. This wasn’t right. Peter had told her he hadn’t even paid the woman’s advance.

I haven’t got it, Katya.

But surely it’s only a few hundred pounds, Peter—

I haven’t got a few hundred pounds. I haven’t got it.

This scene, a few days earlier. Over a near-silent dinner of takeaway pizza. The cheese, growing cold, congealing. Her nausea. His words like something out of a film. Not a very good film, not one she’d watch, anyway. She had dug deeper, there was more to it, of course, complicated things about returns and distributors and a bookseller who’d gone belly-up. A cash-flow problem.

Katya pleaded common courtesy. Could they not borrow such a small sum, put it on a credit card? What if, she said breathlessly, she refuses to finish the translation or to send it to us?

Peter refused to discuss the matter further. He toyed with the pizza crust, banging it against the edge of the box. He lifted sausage pieces from the remaining slices, chewed on them noisily. Katya closed her eyes.

So if she agreed to meet with this Anastasia Harding, what would she tell her? Where would common courtesy be then? I’m sorry, I’m telling you politely that we have no money to pay you. Could you do the translation out of your love for Russian literature?

Katya felt a burst of anger. This diary deserved the best translation possible, the best treatment possible. Nothing halfhearted or hurried or unfinished because the translator had been treated in an offhand manner.

She would find the money; she would agree to see the woman. Not just tea and cakes: full Russian hospitality.

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