The novel Pas pleurer (2014, No crying) by Lydie Salvayre, working as a psychoanalyst for a long time, can be read as a novel on shame. Textual analysis shows that shame – depicted in accordance with the theses of a psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik – is the main topic of the narrative portrazing the effects of historical events on the lives of the individuals. The author uses shame as a means of constructing the novel, the shame being the glue that holds the structure together, determining the space and time, shaping the protagonists and their stories. Shame also functions as the starter and the engine of the narrative. The narrators‐protagonists, who speaking about the “shameful events”, are those who overcome their own feelings of shame by telling their stories. Timely and universal, the novel points to the therapeutic function of literature, thus leaving it open for scientists from other areas of research.

The novel Pas pleurer (2014, No crying) by Lydie Salvayre, working as a psychoanalyst for a long time, can be read as a novel on shame. Textual analysis shows that shame – depicted in accordance with the theses of a psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik – is the main topic of the narrative portrazing the effects of historical events on the lives of the individuals. The author uses shame as a means of constructing the novel, the shame being the glue that holds the structure together, determining the space and time, shaping the protagonists and their stories. Shame also functions as the starter and the engine of the narrative. The narrators‐protagonists, who speaking about the “shameful events”, are those who overcome their own feelings of shame by telling their stories. Timely and universal, the novel points to the therapeutic function of literature, thus leaving it open for scientists from other areas of research.