Ep. 69: Peace Adzo Medie (Author of Reese's Book Club October pick His Only Wife) + Book Recommendations

Sarah's Bookshelves Live

Sarah Dickinson

Bookrecommendations, Bookpodcasts, Sarahsbookshelvespodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslivepodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslive, Bookpodcast, Literarypodcast, Whatshouldiread, Arts, Bookreviewpodcast, Reading, Readingpodcast, Books, Sarahsbookshelves

4.9 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Episode 69, Peace Adzo Medie (author of His Only Wife) talks about why she decided to use fiction to speak out about gender politics, the importance of women asserting themselves, and when first started writing (it was when she was very young!).

Please note that this episode was recorded before His Only Wife was announced as Reese’s Book Club’s October pick.

This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).

Highlights

Why Peace decided to look at gender politics (the subject she teaches) through fiction.
What she learned from speaking with women who are victims of domestic violence (including why they sometimes choose to stay in these relationships).
Why she decided not to focus include violence in His Only Wife.
How common arranged are in Peace’s experience.
How women are a key part of politics, economics, and social life in Ghana.
The importance of the day-to-day things women do to assert themselves.
How the term “respect” is sometimes used to push women to respect men and the problematic treatment of “disrespectful” women.
Which of the three central female characters Peace aspires to be.
Why she chose to let Muna exist mostly in the background of the story and whether she ever considered writing portions of the book from Muna’s perspective.
How Peace decided what the ending would be and whether that changed at all as she was writing.
When Peace first started writing (she was young!) and why she started writing when she did.
A bit about Peace’s next novel (which she’s already written).

Peace’s Book Recommendations [34:08]

Two OLD Books She Loves

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga | Buy from Amazon [34:21]
Aerogrammes: and Other Stories by Tania James | Buy from Amazon [37:02]

Two NEW Books She Loves

The Dragons, the Giant, the Women by Wayetu Moore | Buy from Amazon [39:46]
A House is a Body by Shruti Swamy | Buy from Amazon [43:09]

One Book She DIDN’T LOVE

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | Buy from Amazon [46:17]

One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge (Release Date: March 30, 2021) | Buy from Amazon [47:21]

Last 5 Star Book Peace Read [49:16]

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo | Buy from Amazon [49:16]

Other Books Mentioned

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Buy from Amazon [37:14]
You Think It, I’ll Say It: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [38:47]
The Tusk That Did the Damage by Tania James | Buy from Amazon [39:17]
The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [42:02]
The Archer by Shruti Swamy [44:52]
We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge | Buy from Amazon [48:46]

About Peace

Website | Instagram

Peace Adzo Medie is a scholar and writer. She is Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics at the University of Bristol. Her research addresses gender, politics, and conflict in Africa. Her book, Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence against Women in Africa, was published in March 2020 by Oxford University Press. Her debut novel, His Only Wife, was published in September 2020 by Algonquin Books and selected as the October Pick for Reese’s Book Club. Medie’s research has been supported by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council, and her findings have been published in African Affairs, International Studies Review, Politics & Gender, and the European Journal of Politics and Gender. Her work has won several awards, including the 2019 Best Paper Award of the European Journal of Politics and Gender. Her short stories have appeared in Slice Magazine, Transition, Four Way Review, and elsewhere. She is a co-editor of African Affairs, the top-ranked African Studies journal and is also a Research Fellow at LECIAD, University of Ghana, and a 2015 – 2017 Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellow. She earned a BA in Geography from the University of Ghana, an MA in International Studies from Ohio University, and a PhD in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh. She attended OLA Girls Secondary School, Ho. Medie is represented by Kiele Raymond at Thompson Literary Agency.

Next Episode

There will not be a new episode next week since the podcast is on a bi-weekly schedule.

The following week, there will be a full length episode about all things audiobooks featuring Claire Handscombe from Libro.fm (airing November 11).

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm Sarah of the blog Sarah's Bookshelves. Each week I'm
0:15.5	talking with one bookish guest about two old books they love, two new books they love, one book they don't love, and one new
0:22.7	release they're excited about. We're going to get real and sometimes a bit snarky about all things
0:28.3	books. If you like the show, I'd really love your support. Spread the word to your reader friends,
0:33.8	subscribe to the show, rate and review it wherever you listen to podcasts, or get bonus podcast episodes
0:40.8	by supporting the podcast on Patreon. There's a link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio to my
0:47.5	Patreon page. Let's get rolling. Hey everyone, welcome to a full-length episode of Sarah's Bookshelves Live.
0:56.1	My guest today is Pisajo Medea, the author of the debut novel, His Only Wife. I loved this novel that deals with
1:02.8	women living in a patriarchal society in Ghana and told through the eyes of a woman who is in an
1:10.1	arranged marriage. And I loved that Peace was able to
1:14.2	tell a story with such a powerful message in such a propulsive, readable way. Peace is a senior
1:21.2	lecturer in gender and international politics at the University of Bristol and a research fellow at
1:26.1	the University of Ghana. Her short stories have been published in transition, slice, four-way review, and elsewhere. She is also the author of Global Norms and Local Action, the Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa. She holds a PhD in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in geography
1:45.7	from the University of Ghana. And she was born in Liberia. Welcome, Peace. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
1:52.6	I am so excited to talk to you. I absolutely loved your book, as I mentioned earlier. I read it this summer
1:59.4	and actually read it on vacation. And for a book that
2:01.9	deals with very serious topics, it actually was a great vacation read as well. Well, I'm glad I'm glad to hear
2:08.1	that. And for those listeners who have not yet read your book, can you tell us a little bit about it?
2:13.7	His only wife is a story about Afi. Afi is a young woman in Ghana who finds herself in an arranged marriage to Ellie.
2:23.6	Ellie is a wealthy man. And this is a marriage that has been arranged by Ellie's mother, auntie.
2:31.2	And she's arranged this marriage because she disapproves of Ellie's partner.
2:36.2	So Afi is this young woman who has been selected by Ellie's mother to basically bring him closer to his family.
	...

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