Where do tears go when they dry up

Jean is a general practitioner whose waiting room is never empty. Every day, people come to him with their illnesses, worries and secrets. Jean listens to them, treats them, comforts them, and sometimes makes them laugh or cry for their own good. Behind his practice door, moments of pain, absurdity, tenderness and unexpected joy take turns.

But he himself cannot cry. His tears have been trapped deep inside since one tragic night when he was just six minutes too late to save a child. Since then, he has been asking himself how he can care for others when he cannot deal with his own pain.

Jean gradually finds out that patients are not just people to treat. They also represent stories that help him understand the world and himself. And perhaps they are the ones who will show him the way back to the emotions that have been locked inside him for so long.

Where tears go when they dry is a moving, deeply human and surprisingly funny novel about pain, hope and the courage to remain sensitive even when the world is unbearably cruel.