Misinterpretation

In contemporary New York City, an Albanian interpreter reluctantly agrees to assist in the therapy sessions of Alfred, a Kosovar man scarred by torture. Despite her husband’s warnings, she becomes increasingly drawn into her client’s inner world—Alfred’s trauma begins to awaken her own long-suppressed memories. When she impulsively intervenes in the case of a Kurdish poet in crisis, a single act of compassion sets off a chain of dangerous consequences.

As her decisions grow more precarious, threatening both her marriage and her grip on reality, the unnamed narrator flees to Albania in a desperate bid to reconnect with her mother and find clarity. There, amid the ghosts of her past, she confronts the dissonance between the life she left behind and the one she’s built.

Upon returning to New York, she must face the fallout of her choices—and reckon with a disorienting question: what has she misunderstood, and what has she lost in the process?

Longlisted for the Center For Fiction 2024 First Novel Prize.