His Only Wife

In this smart, funny Reese's Book Club pick and New York Times Notable Book, a young seamstress in Ghana agrees to an arranged marriage, only to realize that some compromises are too extreme to accept.

Afi Tekple is a young seamstress in Ghana. Smart and pretty, she has also been convinced by her mother to marry a man she doesn’t know: a wealthy businessman named Elikem. His family has chosen Afi in the hopes that she will distract him from a current relationship they disapprove of. When Afi is moved from her small hometown to live in Accra, Ghana’s gleaming capital full of wealth and sophistication, she is not prepared for the way her life will change. But she has agreed to this marriage in order to give her mother the financial security she desperately needs, and so Afi must see it through. Or must she?

A witty, moving, and smart debut novel, His Only Wife takes place in a world of men who want their wives to be beautiful, to be good cooks and mothers, to grant their husbands forbearance. And in Afi, we meet a delightful, brave, and relatable heroine who just may break all the rules.

“[A] mesmerizing debut novel.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“A story that kept me tied to the page, told in masterful, seamless prose.”
—BuzzFeed

“I love this book so much I turned the pages so fast . . . It’s all about the search for independence and being true to yourself and who you really are.”
—Reese Witherspoon