The author of Misinterpretation, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, talks about the book that made her walk into a lamppost, and the one with the most beautiful last sentence ever written
Ledia Xhoga
Born and raised in Tirana, Albania, Ledia Xhoga is a fiction writer and playwright
Her debut novel, Misinterpretation, was the recipient of a New York City Book Award, a finalist for Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a Best of 2024 Book by Debutiful and was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025.
Her work has been published in Electric Literature, Lit Hub, Brooklyn Rail, Large Hearted Boy, Intrepid Times, Hobart, and other journals.
Her plays have been workshopped or produced by the Workshop Theatre, New Perspectives Theatre, Eclectic Podcast Network, Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, Spark Creative Works, and Downtown Urban Arts Festival in Manhattan, among others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Misinterpretation subtly blurs the distinction between help and harm. We found it propulsive, unsettling, and strangely human
The Booker Prize 2025 judges on Misinterpretation
All nominated books
Ledia Xhoga’s ruminative debut novel interrogates the darker legacies of family and country, and the boundary between compassion and self-preservation
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