His Only Wife

I read it in less than 24 hours; I couldn\’t put this book down! I was enamored from the opening line. Eli was in absentia the entire marriage. The family entangled Afi when all they had to do was come to terms with Eli choosing his own path. This is a must read! In the end I\’m so proud of and inspired by Afi\’s strength and convictions! Read it; you won\’t regret it!!!!!!!!

This story of a young woman in Ghana is perhaps a bit bittersweet but ends just exactly the way it needs to for the protagonist. The heroine Afi is from a small village. She\’s poor, living with her widowed mother in a hardscrabble life, but she is also beautiful and has excellent sewing skills. When the matriarch of a very powerful and rich Ghanaian family arranges for Afi to be married to her son Eli, Afi has no choice but to agree. It\’s the way to improve her and her mother\’s situation in life. So she is married by proxy (Eli\’s brother Richard stands in for him at the traditional Ghanaian wedding ceremony) and then is sent off to the big city (Accra) to live in a luxurious apartment where she is somewhat overwhelmed by her new modern life. A new life without a husband in it since Eli does not show himself for several months. It turns out that Eli is in love, but not with her. He has had a Liberian mistress for several years and only married Afi because of pressure put on him by his dysfunctional family, who do not like his mistress and will not allow him to marry her. He and his mistress and their daughter live in his primary residence. As Afi becomes more and more aware of her new life and situation, she realizes that things aren\’t the way they should be. The mistress remains somewhat of an unknown throughout the story. Eli, who finally does visit Afi and even becomes a part-time husband to her, refuses to talk about his situation or the woman. The only information Afi gets is from Eli\’s family, who are hostile to the woman and give Afi only disinformation and misinformation about the woman and Eli\’s relationship to her. The woman is ugly and horrid. Just be patient. Give Eli time. He will give her up and be devoted only to you. But this book is more than a story about Afi\’s marriage to Eli. It\’s the story of an unsophisticated, naive village girl coming into her own in the big city. In Accra Afi goes to fashion design school. She learns to stand up for herself. She becomes a career woman. She makes a good friend in the woman living in the apartment across the hall from hers, a woman who just happens to be the mistress of Eli\’s brother Richard. And she finally learns the truth about where she stands in her marriage. This is very readable and enjoyable and educational. I learned a good deal about life and traditions and customs in Ghana. How different some things are from life in the U.S. But it was also obvious from the reading that people and love are basically the same in both countries. \”Afi grows up\” could be the theme of this story which revolves around her and mainly lets us know her thoughts and feelings. Eli remains a handsome, usually pleasant, entity whose thoughts and feelings are never divulged. The other woman is a total mystery until the very end. And if you\’re looking for a 100% HEA to this Ghanaian \”romance,\” you won\’t find it, but the ending is understandable and satisfactory.

Moving through taboos—A wonderful look at the past, present and future Surrounding a relationship and a woman’s growth to achieve and become her own person against all odds! Memorable life lessons. A delight!!

His Wife by Peace Adzo Medie is the kind of story I love-a character driven tale of family dysfunction. Afi marries Eli although he doesn’t show up for the wedding. Eli has another woman and Afi has been chosen to marry Eli so that she can get rid of this woman who the family, and especially Eli’s mom don’t like. His Only Wife is a coming of age story-Afi grows up a lot throughout her marriage. It’s a story of values-modern vs. traditional. It’s a feminist story about independent women. His Only Wife is set in Africa but it could have been set in the US, or just about anywhere in the world. At its heart, it’s about love and deciding what’s acceptable and what’s not when it comes to love. I listened to this book on audio and read it in hard copy. I really enjoyed the narrator as she read the story. Thank you to #netgalley and #algonquinbooks for the audiobook to listen to in exchange for an honest review of #hisonlywife.

Although I would have liked to find out more at the end of the book, I really enjoyed it. The main characters and some supporting ones were so strong, brave and totally likeable. Definitely not an \”action packed\” story, it held my interest through the entire book.

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