SK Global and The Mazur Kaplan Company have acquired rights to acclaimed Ghanaian writer and academic Peace Adzo Medie’s novel His Only Wife in a competitive situation.

Billed as “A Crazy Rich Asians for West Africa” in its Kirkus review, His Only Wife tells the empowering story of a young seamstress in Ghana whose life is transformed when she accepts a marriage proposal from the wealthy family of a man she barely knows.

She relocates to the capital city of Accra and soon discovers her marriage is not the charmed and happy partnership she’d dreamed of. But as she begins to explore the city, she finds a new independence she never before imagined for herself.

The book was published in September by Algonquin Books. It is a New York Times 2020 Notable Book of the Year, a Time Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020, and the October selection for Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club.

The acquisition is the first following SK Global and The Mazur Kapan Company’s recently announced first-look development pact, which included five initial new novels. The company is looking into possibilities with the author for the book’s development as either an English-language movie or a TV series.

“After reading Peace’s beautiful novel, we were driven to build on what she created. We’re honored to take this journey with her and Mazur Kaplan,” SK Global President of Television Marcy Ross said.

Added Paula Mazur, president of The Mazur Kaplan Company: “Peace brought to life a character and slice of Ghana that is unique and captivating. Mazur Kaplan is excited to bring a novel that has resonated deeply with so many readers to screen alongside SK Global.”

Medie is Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics at the University of Bristol.

Her research addresses gender, politics and conflict in Africa and informed her book Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa, published in March.

Her research and findings have been published in African Affairs, International Studies Review, Politics & Gender, and the European Journal of Politics and Gender.

She is a co-editor of the top-ranked African Studies journal African Affairs, and is a Research Fellow at LECIAD, University of Ghana, as well as a 2015-2017 Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellow.

His Only Wife is represented by Aevitas Creative Management and Thompson Literary Agency. Medie is repped by Kiele Raymond at Thompson Literary.