Sklepy cynamonowe
By Bruno Schulz
Cover: Rynek Starego Miasta w Warszawie nocą (The Old Town Market Square in Warsaw at Night) by Józef Pankiewicz (1866-1940) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Bruno Schulz's first book, a cycle of linked stories set in a small Galician town much like his native Drohobycz and seen through the eyes of a boy. His father, a cloth merchant drifting into mania, breeds exotic birds in the attic and lectures the seamstresses on the life of mannequins, while the town turns into a place of dreamlike streets, overgrown gardens and shops of cinnamon-coloured wonders.
Summary written with Claude Opus 5.5.