Dan Brown's 'Inferno': Translators toil in bunker to decode his latest book in 11 languages
Even Dante could not have conjured quite such a hellish punishment: for almost two months, 11 people were confined to an underground bunker in Italy and forced to read the new novel by Dan Brown – all day, every day. Brown's Inferno, which reportedly makes repeated reference to Dante's Inferno, is due for publication on 14 May.
Its publishers were so keen to see the book released in several languages simultaneously that they hired 11 translators from France, Spain, Germany, Brazil and Italy to translate it intensively between February and April 2012. The translators are said to have worked seven days a week until at least 8pm, in a windowless, high-security basement at the Milan headquarters of Mondadori, Italy's largest publishing firm.
The 11 were forbidden from taking mobile phones into the bunker, which was guarded by armed security personnel. Their laptops were screwed to the workstations, and they were allowed access to the internet only via a single, supervised, communal computer.
Although the translators were permitted to eat meals at the Mondadori staff canteen, they were each given cover stories to conceal the true purpose of their work. When not in use, the manuscripts were stored in safes.
Foreign translations of English-language bestsellers tend to be published after the originals, and their publishers lose sales as a result. According to the blog Love German Books, the German version of Brown's last novel, The Lost Symbol, was released a month after its English original, which had already reached No 2 on the country's fiction bestseller list. Inferno, by contrast, will be published simultaneously in English, French, German, Spanish, Catalan, Italian and Portuguese.
Its translators, however, were plainly not trusted not to pirate the text before 14 May. Not only were they ordered never to discuss its plot, but they were also told to sign in and out each time they entered or left the bunker – and even to keep a log of their activities, which reportedly included entries such as "cigarette break", "short walk" and "meal".
For translators accustomed to working at home alone, it was an unusual experience, according to TV Sorrisi e Canzoni, a weekly magazine also published by Mondadori, which is owned by the Berlusconi family. Annamaria Raffo, one of three Italian translators, told the title that there was "reserve, even distrust" among the group at first, but by the end of the process the bunker had "a playground atmosphere".
According to the French translator Carole Delporte, "The bunker experience allowed us to immerse ourselves completely in Dan Brown's book."
Even Dante could not have conjured quite such a hellish punishment: for almost two months, 11 people were confined to an underground bunker in Italy and forced to read the new novel by Dan Brown – all day, every day. Brown's Inferno, which reportedly makes repeated reference to Dante's Inferno, is due for publication on 14 May.
Its publishers were so keen to see the book released in several languages simultaneously that they hired 11 translators from France, Spain, Germany, Brazil and Italy to translate it intensively between February and April 2012. The translators are said to have worked seven days a week until at least 8pm, in a windowless, high-security basement at the Milan headquarters of Mondadori, Italy's largest publishing firm.
The 11 were forbidden from taking mobile phones into the bunker, which was guarded by armed security personnel. Their laptops were screwed to the workstations, and they were allowed access to the internet only via a single, supervised, communal computer.
Although the translators were permitted to eat meals at the Mondadori staff canteen, they were each given cover stories to conceal the true purpose of their work. When not in use, the manuscripts were stored in safes.
Foreign translations of English-language bestsellers tend to be published after the originals, and their publishers lose sales as a result. According to the blog Love German Books, the German version of Brown's last novel, The Lost Symbol, was released a month after its English original, which had already reached No 2 on the country's fiction bestseller list. Inferno, by contrast, will be published simultaneously in English, French, German, Spanish, Catalan, Italian and Portuguese.
Its translators, however, were plainly not trusted not to pirate the text before 14 May. Not only were they ordered never to discuss its plot, but they were also told to sign in and out each time they entered or left the bunker – and even to keep a log of their activities, which reportedly included entries such as "cigarette break", "short walk" and "meal".
For translators accustomed to working at home alone, it was an unusual experience, according to TV Sorrisi e Canzoni, a weekly magazine also published by Mondadori, which is owned by the Berlusconi family. Annamaria Raffo, one of three Italian translators, told the title that there was "reserve, even distrust" among the group at first, but by the end of the process the bunker had "a playground atmosphere".
According to the French translator Carole Delporte, "The bunker experience allowed us to immerse ourselves completely in Dan Brown's book."
