From there the novel unspools, moving rapidly back and forth between the girls' early years and the recent past, to finally reveal the source of the shaming.
The Times of India has declared it a source of shame for the entire country, while The Independent simply labels it a public relations disaster.
Atkinson described the practice as a "source of shame to the education system".
HSBC's chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, has admitted that the revelations are a source of shame and the chairman, Douglas Flint, has said they are "deeply humbling".
He singled out the persecution of Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East and Africa as a source of shame for the global body.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, described the destruction in Gaza from the recent conflict with Israel as "beyond description" and a source of "shame to the international community" as he visited the war-devastated coastal strip on Tuesday.
To be over 30 and single is a source of great shame for the family.
It was only later, on the luxurious, empty, Isreali-only bus back to Jerusalem that I realized the source of his shame and rage.
Girls had difficulty articulating the source of their shame, but often mentioned unwanted attention from classmates and a general feeling that the secrecy surrounding the topic of menstruation is intertwined with a collective understanding that menstruation is somehow bad.
