Goodbye to Berlin

novel by Isherwood

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June 29, 2026

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Goodbye to Berlin is a novel by Christopher Isherwood, published in 1939. It is part of The Berlin Stories, a collection that also includes Mr. Norris Changes Trains. The work is semi-autobiographical, drawing from Isherwood's experiences living in Berlin between 1929 and 1933. This period in Germany was marked by the decline of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism.

In Goodbye to Berlin, Isherwood uses the metaphor "I am a camera with its shutter open" to describe his role as a passive observer of events. The novels within The Berlin Stories are characterized by their detached yet humorous portrayal of expatriates living precarious lives in Berlin, with the looming political dangers serving as an underlying theme. These works were foundational to Isherwood's literary reputation and later inspired the play I Am a Camera and the musical Cabaret.12

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Sally Bowles
…and of his collected stories Goodbye to Berlin (1939). Bowles is a young iconoclastic, minimally talented English nightclub singer in the Berlin of the Weimar Republic period (1919–33). She paints her fingernails green, affects an artless decadent manner, and has woeful luck in her relationships with men.
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…and of his collected stories Goodbye to Berlin (1939). Bowles is a young iconoclastic, minimally talented English nightclub singer in the Berlin of the Weimar Republic period (1919–33). She paints her fingernails green, affects an artless decadent manner, and has woeful luck in her relationships with men.
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The Berlin Stories
Norris) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939).
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Norris) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939).
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English literature
The 1930s
Norris Changes Trains [1935] and Goodbye to Berlin [1939], which reflect his experiences of postwar Germany), in part by its readiness for political involvement, and in part by its openness to the writing of the avant-garde of the Continent. The verse dramas coauthored by Auden and Isherwood, of which The…
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Norris Changes Trains [1935] and Goodbye to Berlin [1939], which reflect his experiences of postwar Germany), in part by its readiness for political involvement, and in part by its openness to the writing of the avant-garde of the Continent. The verse dramas coauthored by Auden and Isherwood, of which The…
Read More