Bimbi

In a picturesque Tyrolean town, young August Strehla trudges home through a bitter winter night, carrying beer for his family and dreaming of the warmth that awaits him. Inside the humble Strehla household, poverty is softened by affection, resilience, and the glowing presence of Hirschvogel, the great old porcelain stove that seems almost royal in its beauty. Dorothea, the capable eldest sister, stretches meager food and limited resources to keep the children fed and cheerful, while their kind but debt-ridden father struggles to provide. Around the stove, August sketches for his younger siblings, revealing a bright, inwardly ambitious imagination that turns hardship into wonder. As Christmas nears, the stove becomes more than a source of heat: it is a symbol of memory, dignity, and family identity, tied to stories of the master potter Augustin Hirschvogel and to August's own longing to create beautiful things. That fragile happiness is shattered when Karl Strehla admits he has sold Hirschvogel to pay his debts, treating it as mere property. August sees the act as theft and betrayal, and his desperate protest ends in violence, exposing the brutal clash between poverty, parental authority, and a child's fierce sense of justice. The volume also includes a sharp satirical fable of a rose tree whose vanity and transformation reveal the bitter cost of beauty, status, and desire. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.