Misinterpretation

Signed copy of Misinterpretation, a powerful debut longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025. 

In present-day New York City, an Albanian interpreter reluctantly agrees to work with Alfred, a Kosovar torture survivor, during his therapy sessions. Despite her husband’s cautions, she soon becomes entangled in her clients’ struggles: Alfred’s nightmares stir up her own buried memories, and an impulsive attempt to help a Kurdish poet leads to a risky encounter and a reckless plan.

As ill-fated decisions stack up, jeopardizing the nameless narrator’s marriage and mental health, she takes a spontaneous trip to reunite with her mother in Albania, where her life in the United States is put into stark relief. When she returns to face the consequences of her actions, she must question what is real and what is not.

Ruminative and propulsive, Ledia Xhoga’s debut novel Misinterpretation interrogates the darker legacies of family and country, and the boundary between compassion and self-preservation.

"Misinterpretation subtly blurs the distinction between help and harm. We found it propulsive, unsettling, and strangely human.” ― Booker Prize 2025 Judges

"Ledia Xhoga has prepared us to consider each decision from every possible vantage point. The satisfaction is in accepting the baton of exquisite ambivalence as she takes it from the narrator’s hands and passes it to the reader." ― Times Literary Supplement

"A nuanced exploration of communication failures, blurred boundaries and the emotional cost of unchecked altruism." ― Observer (UK)

“Absolutely gorgeous. Taut as a thriller, lovely as a watercolor.” —Jennifer Croft

“Deft and insightful . . . . exceptional.” —Idra Novey

“An absolutely gorgeous novel, taut as a thriller, lovely as a watercolor, poetically incisive and wry. I devoured this book and was heartbroken when it was over. Ledia Xhoga is a great and visionary writer whose career I will follow eagerly in decades to come.” —Jennifer Croft, author of The Extinction of Irena Rey

Ledia Xhoga (pronounced Joga) is a fiction writer and playwright. She was born and raised in Tirana, Albania and currently lives in Brooklyn.

Her debut novel Misinterpretation was published by Tin House Books (US & Canada) and Daunt Books (UK). Misinterpretation was longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, the recipient of a New York City Book Award, Finalist for Center For Fiction First Novel Prize and a Best of 2024 Book by Debutiful. 

Her work has been published in Electric Literature, Lit Hub, Brooklyn Rail, Large Hearted Boy, Intrepid Times, Hobart and other journals.

This is a first US Edition copy from Tin House Press.