The article presents how the novel The Translation by Pablo De Santis reffers to the most important concepts of theory and philosophy of translation. Among these concepts the most significant are those which consider the boundaries and mechanisms of interpretation in the act of translation. These ideas are metaphorically expressed by the myth of the fall of the Tower of Babel. The interpretative context for the novel by De Santis is determined by the works of Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva and Hans-Georg Gadamer. An important research problem is also the relationship between the category of translation and the hybrid genre of the crime novel by De Santis.