One of the most fascinating books I’ve read in a long time. Taking Gericault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa as a starting point, it is part art history/ biography, part memoir dealing with grief, trauma and loss on one hand and the process of creating art, healing, collaboration, hope and friendship on the other.

The author, Tom de Freston is an artist long obsessed with Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa. This obsession leads him to not only look into Gericault’s life, work and research and preparation Gericault undertook before creating it but also into ways of creating his own contemporary response to it. A major scandal in France in early 19th century, Medusa carried hundreds of people from all walks of life to recolonise Senegal when it sank. While those of better birth and position took to lifeboats, a hundred and fifty survivors were crammed onto a hastily built raft that drifted for days without food, water or shelter. Less than twenty people survived the ordeal and Gericault’s Raft captures the moment of sighting the rescue ship on the horizon. The huge canvas was controversial at the time, highlighting the horrors and the suffering of the shipwrecked while condemning slavery and French imperial ambitions.

In his work, de Freston explores ways of depicting horrors of suffering, violence and pain, his own trauma, grief and complicated, abusive relationship with his father. The Raft is an inspiration but it is when he meets Ali, a Syrian refugee blinded in a terrorist attack and the two start collaborating that the artist is finally able to face his own past and begin healing.

Wreck is a compelling read, visceral and tough at times but also luminous and moving. I particularly loved reading about de Freston’s process, his writing is so vivid, at times I felt I was standing in his studio quietly watching this manic process of creation. There is an exhibition of his work at Cross Street Gallery in Islington to coincide with the publication of the book that I can’t wait to go and see.

My thanks to Granta Publications and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Wreck.