Lead Review (Misinterpretation)

• Book: Misinterpretation
• Location: Albania, New York City (NYC)
• Author: Ledia Xhoga

Review Author: tripfiction

3.5*

In a recent review in the Sunday Times Books section (17 August 2025), reviewer Laura Hackett initially found the blurb a little off-putting (a novel about a woman who interprets therapy sessions for a Kosovar torture survivor) but once it had been Booker long listed, she decided to give it another chance and felt ‘gripped’ by it. She goes on to say that ‘the highlight of the novel is Albania, when the narrator returns home to see her mother’.

The unnamed narrator is living in New York city, married to Billy. There are early indications that there is a level of violence in their relationship, because she is pushing him to repair a hole he punched in the wall. This level of violence often precedes personal attacks but she is clear that he would not hurt her. He then behaves badly when she invites some Kurdish women to their home.

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She meets Alfred from Kosovo, whom she accompanies to the dentist. He then feels comfortable enough with her to ask her to train as an interpreter for his upcoming therapy sessions. He needs some help as he is seeing all kinds of odd animals superimposed on humans. However, whilst balancing her need to over function, she inserts herself into his sessions when her role there should simply be to get the two parties communicating and understanding each other. She is removed from her duties, and, given Billy is going to be absent for a spell, she heads home to Tirana to see her mother.

“In Tirana, bright, eye-catching designs were painted diligently over the drab communist-era apartment buildings…. Those blotches of paint were a makeshift declaration of hope.”

She heads to Berat to the Gorica Bridge and half heartedly sees if the art museum is open but it is closed. The opening hours are detailed by our anonymous narrator and it was at that point that I felt the merits of the descriptive process – which I had enjoyed up to that point – were becoming stagnant, almost a construct to mask the lack of focus developing in the narrative.

The story moves on and she begins to wonder whether, in fact, Billy is actually in the same place, having randomly overheard some tourists talking about someone who fitted his description and his fawning (over the afore-mentioned bridge).

This is a story in part of the immigrant experience, the feeling of being neither fully integrated in a new culture, nor truly at home in the country of origin. The narrator has a bit of a clodhopper nature and she is actually quite hard to get to know. The story and writing certainly have their merits but overall this was the kind of book I quite enjoyed whilst reading, but never felt overly driven to pick up and resume where I had left off. I think, though, that if you are heading to Albania, this would be a good novel to choose.

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