Raw: Shipwreck, Secrets, and the Afterlife of an Infamous Family History

A French sculptor transfigures her family's long-protected secret into art

In 1816, the French naval ship Medusa ran aground off the coast of Senegal. Some of the officers and crew escaped on lifeboats, but nearly 150 of its passengers were forced to board an improvised raft. The raft remained adrift for thirteen terrifying days of delirium, chaos, murder, and cannibalism. Only fifteen men survived.

Clarisse Griffon du Bellay's ancestor was among those survivors, and his annotated version of ...