His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

AN OBSERVER, TIME MAGAZINE & NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2020 A REESE WITHERSPOON'S BOOK CLUB PICK 'Vivid, witty and utterly absorbing.' Daily Mail

'Elikem married me in absentia; he did not come to our wedding.' Afi Tekple is a young seamstress in Ghana. She is smart; she is pretty; and she has been convinced by her family to marry a man she does not know. Elikem Ganyo is a wealthy businessman whose mother has chosen Afi in the hope that she will distract him from his relationship with a woman his family claim is inappropriate.

Marrying a stranger seems a small price to pay in exchange for financial security for her family and the lifestyle she's always wanted in Accra, Ghana's gleaming capital, a place of wealth and sophistication. But when Afi arrives in the city, she realises her fairy-tale ending might not be all she had hoped for. Her days are spent with nothing to do but cook meals for a man who may or may not turn up to eat them.

Can she really live this life without losing sight of herself? Bursting with warmth and humour, His Only Wife is a witty, smart and moving novel about a brave young woman and her search for independence in a man's world, and the rules she just might have to break along the way.