Ledia Xhoga (pronounced Joga) is a fiction writer and playwright originally from Tirana, Albania. Her new novel, Misinterpretation (2024), based primarily in little-known ethnic enclaves in New York City, tells the story of an Albanian translator who becomes entangled in the lives of a Kosovar torture survivor and a Kurdish poet — at the expense of her marriage and her mental health.

Jennifer Croft, who received the International Booker Prize for her translation of Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights, called Misinterpretation “absolutely gorgeous. Taut as a thriller, lovely as a watercolor.”

In July, Misinterpretation became one of only 13 novels nominated for the 2025 Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in all of literature.

The novel received the New York City Book Award and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.

Ledia Xhoga
Conversation / Q&A
4:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 18
University at Albany
Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center West
1400 Washington Avenue Albany NY 12222
Free and open to the public
Books will be sold following the conversation

Presented by the NYS Writers Institute.