I just finished reading ‘His Only Wife’, the debut novel by Peace Adzo Medie. I enjoyed it and I think you will too. It was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2020 and highly recommended by Buzzfeed, Christian Science Monitor and many others.
The novel is sort of a fairy tale story turned upside down. It starts simply enough, a sweet and beautiful young woman marries a prince…in this case a wealthy, handsome businessman. Afi Tekple is a young seamstress in Ghana. She is smart; she is pretty; and she has been convinced by her mother to marry a man she does not know. Afi knows who he is, of course—Elikem is a wealthy businessman whose mother has chosen Afi in the hopes that she will distract him from his relationship with a woman his family claims is inappropriate. But Afi is not prepared for the shift her life takes when she is moved from her small hometown of Ho to live in Accra, Ghana’s gleaming capital, a place of wealth and sophistication where she has days of nothing to do but cook meals for a man who may or may not show up to eat them. She has agreed to this marriage in order to give her mother the financial security she desperately needs, and so she must see it through. Or maybe not?
He finally does appear and melts Afi’s heart. He is so much more than she imagines – and the young woman falls in love with her prince. Though their initial meeting goes well, Eli leaves again, giving no indication of when he might return. In the meantime, he suggests that Afi might want to enroll in school to help her fill her days. Learning of her skills as a seamstress and her interest in fashion, he sends his sister around to take Afi to the city’s design schools.
It is here that Medie’s story departs from the traditional fairytale. Afi avails herself of benefits Cinderella never received, opportunities like an education that helps her develop her talents and begin to make a name for herself in the fashion world. There are no wicked stepsisters in this story, either. With Eli away for weeks at a time, Afi develops friendships with other women, including his sister and his brother’s girlfriend. These friends open her eyes to possibilities that she never knew existed – let alone imagined – for herself.
Her women friends also give Afi a clearer picture of the Liberian woman, who, it turns out, is not at all how Eli’s mother had described her. She discovers this for herself when the two meet by accident and Afi realizes Eli never needed to be rescued.
But neither does she. In this very contemporary story, Afi gets her fairytale ending, just not the one that generations of girls have been told to expect. Afi rescues herself and goes on to live her own, independent life.
It’s well-written and a fun, easy read. There’s lots of references to wonderful Ghanaian food and you can get a little bit of a feel for modern Ghanaian life. I always loved visiting Ghana and very much enjoyed the people. Give this book a try; I think you’ll enjoy it.
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