Peace Adzo Medie
Author of His Only Wife
About the Author
Image credit: author page, Workman Publishing
Works by Peace Adzo Medie
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1981
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Pittsburgh (PhD ∙ public and international affairs)
University of Ghana (BA|geography) - Occupations
- author
academic - Organizations
- African Affairs
LECIAD
University of Bristol
University of Ghana - Agent
- Kiele Raymond (Thompson Literary Agency)
- Short biography
- Peace Adzo Medie is a Ghanaian writer and senior lecturer in gender and international politics at the University of Bristol in England. Prior to that she was a research fellow at the University of Ghana. She has published several short stories, and her book Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. She is an award-winning scholar and has been awarded several fellowships. She holds a PhD in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in geography from the University of Ghana. She was born in Liberia.
- Nationality
- Liberia
- Birthplace
- Liberia
- Places of residence
- Ghana
Liberia
England
Members
Reviews
This is a story about men getting away with things. Weak men who are threatened by strong women, and men who know the women will keep silent rather than risk ostracization. Men whose political power protects them. Men who abandon a wife and children under social pressure, then expect to command the children.
It is the story of women who suffer by men’s actions and inactions. Who elect silence over justice, fearful of condemnation. And of women who stand up for themselves, and the price they show more pay for it.
It is the story of life in Ghana, where people die in hospitals from neglect, and in America where qualified people of cover lose jobs to the novices they had mentored.
Two cousins, childhood best friends, become estranged because of family secrets. After her mother’s death and her father starts a new family, Selasi moves in with Akorfa’s family. Akorfa is expected to become a doctor and her parents pay for the best education available. Akorfa’s parents also pay for Selasi’s schooling, but when she is found with a boyfriend, her punishment is to do the work of a maid and cook. After all, her grades landed her in home ec classes.
Akorfa’s academic success takes her to America where she encounters racism and jealousy at school and in her career. Selasi becomes an entrepreneur, opening a successful restaurant in Ghana.
Each woman tells her story in the novel, first Akorfa, then Selasi, revealing new perspectives on what had happened. Decades later, the women are brought together again, discovering their shared trauma.
I received a galley from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. show less
It is the story of women who suffer by men’s actions and inactions. Who elect silence over justice, fearful of condemnation. And of women who stand up for themselves, and the price they show more pay for it.
It is the story of life in Ghana, where people die in hospitals from neglect, and in America where qualified people of cover lose jobs to the novices they had mentored.
Two cousins, childhood best friends, become estranged because of family secrets. After her mother’s death and her father starts a new family, Selasi moves in with Akorfa’s family. Akorfa is expected to become a doctor and her parents pay for the best education available. Akorfa’s parents also pay for Selasi’s schooling, but when she is found with a boyfriend, her punishment is to do the work of a maid and cook. After all, her grades landed her in home ec classes.
Akorfa’s academic success takes her to America where she encounters racism and jealousy at school and in her career. Selasi becomes an entrepreneur, opening a successful restaurant in Ghana.
Each woman tells her story in the novel, first Akorfa, then Selasi, revealing new perspectives on what had happened. Decades later, the women are brought together again, discovering their shared trauma.
I received a galley from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. show less
Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie is the coming-of-age story of two Ghanaian girls in the last part of the twentieth century. Akorfa and Selasi are very different, and while they are inseparable as children, their lives diverge, and as the novel ends they are in very different places. In the first section, we hear Akorfa's story and see her explanation for the rift with Selasi. Then, in part 2, we get Selasi's point of view. They are both fully developed characters, and we see how their show more personalities develop over time. I like that there is not one version of the story; Medie allows her characters to tell their stories and the readers can draw their own conclusions.
Through these compelling stories, Medie explores contemporary Ghana and reveals the importance of family in Ghanaian society, a place with no other real safety net. Yet, there are downsides to family as well. Women are second class citizens, and there is little protection for the most vulnerable when the family breaks down. In the stories of Akorfa and Selasi, we see the precariousness of the lives of the girls.
This is a fascinating novel that looks at a variety of experiences in Ghana. show less
Through these compelling stories, Medie explores contemporary Ghana and reveals the importance of family in Ghanaian society, a place with no other real safety net. Yet, there are downsides to family as well. Women are second class citizens, and there is little protection for the most vulnerable when the family breaks down. In the stories of Akorfa and Selasi, we see the precariousness of the lives of the girls.
This is a fascinating novel that looks at a variety of experiences in Ghana. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.The American dream makes us smile. Everyone knows what it means. Yet, is the US still a place where parents from other countries want to send their kids to attend college when there’s racial prejudice, gun violence and an increase in crime? Perhaps a decade or so ago, it wasn’t as bad.
That’s when Akorfa’s parents wanted the best for their only daughter. They were willing to empty their saving’s account to send her from Ghana to America so that she may become a distinguished doctor. show more She had been groomed since she was a young girl to study hard and make her family proud.
Her best friend was Salesi. They laughed, played and loved each other to pieces as young girls until something happened which changed everything.
The book has three parts. First is Akorfa’s POV, second is Salesi’s POV and third puts the two together. When I started reading about Akorfa’s early life, I wanted to know at the same time what was going on with Salesi. The timing was off when I had to wait half way through the book to learn about her friend’s world. It would have been more in sync to switch chapters back and forth from Akorfa to Salesi.
However, I was engaged from the first page with the characters I could visualize. Both Black girls were thrown into a world that wasn’t easy and so foreign to many of us. I just wanted to reach out and embrace them with love.
My thanks to Algonquin Books and LibraryThing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less
That’s when Akorfa’s parents wanted the best for their only daughter. They were willing to empty their saving’s account to send her from Ghana to America so that she may become a distinguished doctor. show more She had been groomed since she was a young girl to study hard and make her family proud.
Her best friend was Salesi. They laughed, played and loved each other to pieces as young girls until something happened which changed everything.
The book has three parts. First is Akorfa’s POV, second is Salesi’s POV and third puts the two together. When I started reading about Akorfa’s early life, I wanted to know at the same time what was going on with Salesi. The timing was off when I had to wait half way through the book to learn about her friend’s world. It would have been more in sync to switch chapters back and forth from Akorfa to Salesi.
However, I was engaged from the first page with the characters I could visualize. Both Black girls were thrown into a world that wasn’t easy and so foreign to many of us. I just wanted to reach out and embrace them with love.
My thanks to Algonquin Books and LibraryThing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Afi's mother is ecstatic! Fortune is surely smiling upon them, because the wealthy family of Elikem Ganyo has proposed marriage between him and Afi, though the two have never actually met. However, when Elikem doesn't even attend their own wedding in person (though this is not entirely outside of custom), Afi is sorely disappointed and has serious doubts about their future. Though the marriage will increase their social status and greatly improve their financial situation, and though Afi show more likes and is attracted to Elikem when she finally meets him in person, when she learns that his family has arranged the marriage solely to distract him from his live-in girlfriend she begins to wonder what she has gotten herself into.
This is both a heartbreaking and inspiring book. I appreciated how, though Afi is bound in some ways Ghanaian cultural constraints and expectations, neither is she afraid to speak up and act for herself, her dignity and her independence. This is the first book I've read by a Ghanaian author, and I very much recommend it.
I received this ARC via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. show less
This is both a heartbreaking and inspiring book. I appreciated how, though Afi is bound in some ways Ghanaian cultural constraints and expectations, neither is she afraid to speak up and act for herself, her dignity and her independence. This is the first book I've read by a Ghanaian author, and I very much recommend it.
I received this ARC via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Lists
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 4
- Members
- 669
- Popularity
- #37,727
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 60
- ISBNs
- 33
- Languages
- 2
- Favorited
- 2
