In the last decades the figure of the interpreter increasingly plays a leading role in literary works. The interpreter is often used as representing current topics like the search for identity, being different or foreign, migration and cultural hybridity. Selected works of twelve writers, among whom authors such as Ivo Andric, Ingeborg Bachmann or Javier Marías, are submitted by the authoress to a detailed analysis. Literary representations are confronted with insights from Cultural, Language and Translation Studies. In this way, not only the gap between fiction and reality becomes clear, but also the necessity for a discussion on the ethics of the profession, more specifically on the image of the role of interpreters and the image interpreters have of their profession.