Review by Booklist Review
Medie (His Only Wife, 2020) returns with another engaging Ghana-based story, this one centered on the intricacies of lifelong friendships and complicated families. Cousins Akorfa and Selasi are inseparable as children, but time, adolescence, and bitter family conflict eventually set them on separate paths. Akorfa leaves to study in the U.S., and Selasi remains in Ghana. The women take turns telling their stories, which unfold as parallel lives--education, marriage, children, careers--in contrasting settings. Akorfa navigates racism and loneliness as an immigrant in the U.S., while Selasi faces classism and political injustice in Ghana. Both women unknowingly suffer sexual assault at the hands of the same relative, and both are betrayed and shamed in different ways by the families who should be protecting and defending them. When they eventually reunite after many years, decades of lies and secrets are revealed, allowing these long-estranged women to see the past with more clarity. Thought-provoking and beautifully told, this will have particular appeal to readers who are fascinated by stories that feature strong female friendships.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Medie (His Only Wife) focuses on the complex relationship between two Ghanaian women in this poignant outing. Akorfa and her cousin Selasi were best friends as children, but a rift develops after they begin boarding school, where Akorfa benefits from her family's support, including private tutors. Eventually, she leaves for the University of Pittsburgh, where she experiences various episodes of racism, beginning when her roommate's parents automatically assume she's there on a scholarship. After graduation, she lands a job at an NGO in Washington, D.C., marries a cardiologist, and has children. The second part tells Selasi's story, detailing her struggles after her mother died and her father abandoned her. When she is sent to live with Akorfa's family, Akorfa's mother treats Selasi like a servant and Akorfa turns a blind eye. After boarding school, Selasi becomes a successful restaurateur in Ghana and marries a politician. Medie unfurls major revelations in the third part, when Selasi and Akorfa reunite in Ghana and learn they were each similarly traumatized as children, prompting them to reexamine their long-held bitterness toward each other. Though there's a bit too much exposition, Medie keenly explores the nuances of the women's friendship and their misplaced blame. This is worth a look. Agent: Kiele Raymond, Thompson Literary Agency. (June)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
When a childhood friendship sours, two young Ghanaian women are filled with confusion and spite. Cousins Akorfa and Selasi were inseparable as children, and the friendship between their mothers guaranteed they spent lots of time together. But according to Akorfa, who tells the first half of the story, her mother always knew "that my cousin would grow up to break all that she touched, even the people who loved her." Akorfa's family has more money, and Akorfa is a better student than Selasi; this puts the friends on an unequal basis from the start, and Akorfa's mean-spirited mother makes sure no one forgets it. Then Selasi's mother dies in childbirth when the girls are 11. Her father sends her to live with her grandmother and moves on to start a new family; not long after, Akorfa's family moves to Accra. By the time Selasi comes to visit, things have changed between them. Akorfa goes to college in the U.S., then moves there permanently. She's married, in her 30s, and returning home for her father's memorial when she next sees Selasi, who is ice cold. "I turned to my mother. 'What did we do to her? I want to know. What have we done to Selasi?' " The next half of the book answers that question by starting the whole story over from Selasi's point of view--not the wisest narrative choice--and following her into adulthood. A brief final section is told in third person. Following the success of His Only Wife (2020), Medie seems to have bitten off more than she can chew, with themes of sexual predation, Black life in the U.S., and Ghanaian political corruption elbowing their ways into what is already an ungainly structure for the story of a broken friendship. The resolution feels forced, with a deus ex machina introduced to inspire Akorfa and Selasi to reveal the secrets that have warped their lives. This sophomore effort is likely to disappoint fans of Medie's fine debut. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
