The Montgomery series are a substantial part of her work as translator, but she also translated other authors as well. She started translating for Európa in 1980. Initially, she did a test translation but several weeks passed without an answer, and she finally called the publisher only to find out that she was not only accepted but got a specific book assignment. Her first translation for Európa was a crime fiction titled Death of an Expert Witness (1977) by P. D. James (in Hungarian Fehérköpenyes halál, 1985) and later she translated prestigious authors such as Irwin Shaw, E. L. Doctorow, Philip Roth among others. She has worked for other publishers as well such as Park, Ulpius, Partvonal, Édesvíz, Könyvmolyképző, Maxim, and Lazi. Szűr-Szabó has translated other Canadian authors as well, for example Leonard Cohen’s A kedvenc játék (The Favourite Game) for Ulpius in 2003 and Carol Shields’ Norah, gyere haza! (Unless) for Geopen in 2004. It is worth noting that three different publishing houses tried to introduce Carol Shields in Hungary, involving three different translators (Helikon Publishing House in 1998, Geopen in 2004, Ulpius in 2007). The phenomenon of publishing a single title from a particular author is typical in the Canadian–Hungarian translation flow. This practice, however, does not encourage the reception. The various publishers often involve different translators, and thus make the oeuvre of a translated author very fragmented. In the case of Montgomery, however, Katalin Szűr-Szabó became a trademark, the so called ‘Hungarian voice’ for the Canadian author.

Montgomery was selected for translation by Európa as mentioned above. It was Mária Borbás, literary translator, Európa’s editor who suggested that the style of the novels would fit well with Szűr-Szabó. Győző Ferencz, poet, translator, editor was the proofreader of the translations. He was very thorough but suggested only a few changes which were duly sent back to the translator to be approved. The in-depth checking in Montgomery’s case at that time was still an important step in the editorial process. In a personal interview2 Szűr-Szabó expressed that it became rarer and rarer in the 1990s for the translator to get the proofread version back for approval. By the end of the turn of the millennium, the editorial processes sped up, often simplifying the proofreading, correcting, and multiple rounds of linguistic checking of the text. She explained that before the time of computers and the internet, she would type her translation in four copies using carbon paper and used lexicons, the Webster dictionary, and English-speaking acquaintances to clarify unknown realia. While Szűr-Szabó did not find culture specific items, such as natural environment (e.g. flora and fauna typical of Canada) difficult to translate, she found it challenging to find Hungarian technical terms some architectural features (e.g. house types, gables, drains etc.). She expressed that translating Montgomery was not much different from translating other Anglo-Saxon authors that she got from the publisher. Interestingly, through Montgomery, she became very familiar with the environment of the Prince Edward Island through translation, and although she has visited several English-speaking countries, she has not had the opportunity to visit the island.

At the micro-level, we see that the translation flow is heavily influenced by the translator and publisher, and the translator and audience interaction. These relations involve recognition and the translator’s visibility. Szűr-Szabó is not only a sought-after translator by the publishers, but the readers also appreciate her work. On the web.2 social media platform for readers Moly.hu, 209 translations are registered under Szűr-Szabó’s name. There are twenty-one evaluations3 for her translations, 90% (19) of which assigned the maximum 5 stars, and 10% (2) assigned 3 stars. On the platform, readers also have a possibility to upload their opinion about the translations. 7 readers responded with positive comments, such as “Only quality translations flow out of her hands which unfortunately is rare today. My compliments!”4 (gumicukor, 3 April 2020) or “Her name is guarantee for quality translation and for good books based on my experience”5 (evé, 2 November 2013) and “She is my utmost favourite translator! I was 13 when I first read Anne, and I found the translation so beautiful that from that time I did not want to become an author anymore, but a translator”6 (mdmselle, 14 June 2013). These positive comments reaffirm the translator and motivate the translation flow as well.

Regarding the translator–audience relationship, it must be mentioned that the Anne series has attracted a sizable group of fans in Hungary. The Facebook fan page named Anna a Zöld Oromból [Anne from the Green Gables] gathers over 10,000 Hungarian followers and releases about one post every month. Although it focuses on the details of the CBC film adaptation, it also provides links to recent publications of Montgomery books in Hungarian. The fan website registered under the https://avonlea.hu/ domain, and linked to the Facebook page, was started on 20 July 1998 and contains detailed information about the Road to Avonlea TV series. The subdomain https://anne.avonlea.hu/ focuses on the story of Anne Shirley but is not updated with recent translations. The website contains links to international webshops of Anne merchandise and international Montgomery fan pages. The website presents an example of the cultural bundle that contains translated books, films, theatre plays, merchandise, and the feedback of the consumers in the target culture. The fan club also organizes regular meetings where translator Katalin Szűr-Szabó has also been invited as a special guest.

While the translator becomes visible in the translator–audience interaction as seen above, he or she often remains invisible when it comes to translator–publisher relations, which fact may negatively impact the translation flow. Although Szűr-Szabó is a renowned translator, she expressed that it is not easy to rely only on translation when it comes to financial aspects. Publishers often allocate little time for translation and pay low honoraria. Also, when a book translation is used for the audiovisual adaptations, e.g. for creating subtitles or dubbing, the translator is not named. Szűr-Szabó is a member of the Hungarian Association of Literary Translators (MEGY) which has joined the international initiative called “Name the Translator,”7 but she pointed out that the translator is very often listed along with the technical details on the colophon. This might be the reason why the literary translator’s work is not mentioned in the critics’ assessment of the book. For her, it is clearly a passion for translation that motivates her work and despite all difficulties. “The reward of translation is in the work itself” she expressed.8