His Only Wife

Peace Adzo Medie is a writer and scholar. Born in Liberia, she grew up in Ghana before moving to the US for her postgraduate studies. She teaches politics, African studies, and women and gender studies at the University of Bristol in Bristol, England. In 2020, she published Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa, a scholarly book examining gender and international studies. These areas of Medie’s academic background also inform her works of fiction. In her essay “Writing Afi,” found at the back of the source text, Medie addresses how she uses her novels to convey “life’s beauty, ugliness, complexities, and contradictions,” particularly as it relates “to women getting married and staying married in Ghana” (284).

Originally published in 2020, His Only Wife was Medie’s debut novel. Since its publication, it has been translated into five languages. The novel was also named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, a New York Times Notable Book of 2020, a Time Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020, and a Reese’s Book Club Pick. The novel’s protagonist, Afi Tekple, “is very much a product of [Medie’s] imagination,” but Afi’s circumstances are grounded in a Ghanaian reality familiar to Medie (285).