Goodbye to Berlin is a short novel by Christopher Isherwood. It is often published together with Mr. Norris Changes Trains in a collection called The Berlin Stories.
The novel, a semiautobiographical account of Isherwood's time in 1930s Berlin, describes pre-Nazi Germany and the people he met. It is episodic, dealing as it does with a large cast over a period of several years from late 1930 to early 1933. It is written as a connected series of six short stories and novellas. These are: "A Berlin Diary (Autumn 1930)", "Sally Bowles", "On Ruegen Island (Summer 1931)", "The Nowaks", "The Landauers", and "A Berlin Diary (Winter 1932-3)".
Moving to Germany to work on his novel, Isherwood soon becomes involved with many different German citizens: The caring landlady, Frl. Schroeder; the "divinely decadent" Sally Bowles, a young English woman who sings in the local cabaret and her coterie of admirers; Natalia Laundauer, the rich, Jewish heiress of a prosperous family business; Peter and Otto, a gay couple struggling to accept their relationship and sexuality in light of the rise of the Nazis.
The book, first published in 1939, highlights the groups of people who would be most at risk from Nazi intimidation. It was described by contemporary writer George Orwell as "Brilliant sketches of a society in decay".
The novel was adapted into a Broadway play called I Am A Camera by John Van Druten (1951), and it was a personal success for Julie Harris as the insouciant Sally Bowles, winning her the first of her four Tony Awards for Best Leading Actress in a play. The title is a quote taken from the novel's first page ("I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking."). The play was then adapted into a less successful film (1955) with Laurence Harvey and Julie Harris, with screenplay by John Collier and music by Malcolm Arnold. This adaptation earned the infamous review by Walter Kerr, "Me no Leica". The book was then adapted into the Tony Award-winning musical Cabaret (1966) and the film Cabaret (1972) which won Liza Minnelli her Academy Award for playing Sally. (Interestingly, the word cabaret is derived from the Latin camera, meaning a small room.)
The title I Am A Camera was also used for a 1980 song Into the Lens (I Am A Camera) by Yes and The Buggles.
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