Nachbarn: Erzählungen

In the narrow Hirschengasse, a modest white‑goods shop stands as a quiet witness to a fading era. Its stoic owner, a diminutive man in a flower‑embroidered cap, has spent decades tending the counter without saying a word, while his daughter and a shop assistant keep the place humming for the handful of loyal customers who still cherish the old measuring system. The shop’s unchanging routine masks the subtle currents of memory that flow through its narrow aisles.

At the heart of the tale is the shopkeeper’s youth, when he was known as “the little Ohngelt.” A shy, gentle boy who preferred the company of his sister’s dolls to that of his schoolmates, he gradually discovers an aching longing for love amid the stream of women who come to browse ribbons and linens. The story gently unfolds his quiet yearning and the way a seemingly ordinary shop becomes a stage for his first, tender brush with romance.