Say What Now?

Dear Senile Giraffes,

I just finished a book, that will remain nameless for the purposes of this post. This novel was an English translation of an Italian book, presumably of some merit. And while the story was okay (not great, but okay), the writing was not. There were many turns of phrases that just didn't seem to work. The idioms were just a bit off. Some word pairings didn't make sense.

Which makes me wonder. How do publishing houses decide on who does the translations? Are they fluent in both languages? Or just in one, and manages in the other? It must be difficult for the original writer because they most likely aren't fluent in the translated language, so they really have no idea how it turned out.

Does Harry Potter read totally different in the German translation? Does the Chinese version of the The Lost Symbol maintain the same style as the original?

One wonders.