Goodbye to Berlin

'The best prose writer in English' Gore Vidal

Set in the 1930s, Goodbye to Berlin evokes the glamour and sleaze, excess and repression of Berlin society. Isherwood shows the lives of people at threat from the rise of the Nazis: a wealthy Jewish heiress, Natalia Landauer, a gay couple, Peter and Otto, and an English upper-class waif, the divinely decadent Sally Bowles.

1930s Berlin is a realm of glamour and sleaze, excess and repression.

Having moved to the city to work on his novel, Christopher finds himself immersed in a world of contradiction. He becomes enamoured with the local denizens and the colourful lives they lead, meeting an English upper-class waif, the delightfully decadent Sally Bowles; a couple – Peter and Otto – who are struggling with their sexual identities; and a distinguished and doomed Jewish family, the Landauers. With the Nazis rising to power, Christopher’s Berlin is a sparkling city perched on the edge of an abyss.

‘Isherwood is a master’ Evening Standard

‘Brilliant sketches of a society in decay’ George Orwell

‘Reading this novel is much like overhearing anecdotes in a crowded bar while history knocks impatiently at the windows’ Guardian