Christopher Isherwood was born in Cheshire in 1904. He began to write at university and later moved to Berlin, where he gave English lessons to support himself. He witnessed first hand the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany and some of his best works, such as Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin, draw on these experiences. He created the character of Sally Bowles, later made famous as the heroine of the musical Cabaret. Isherwood travelled with W.H. Auden to China in the late 1930s before going with him to America, which became his home for the rest of his life. He died on 4 January 1986.

Adiós a Berlín combina la realidad con la ficción, y el Christopher Isherwood de la novela, aun siendo el narrador, no es necesariamente el autor. Personajes marginales, a menudo cómicos, viven vidas desordenadas, hasta torpes, como exiliados en Berlín, bajo la amenaza del horror que se avecina.La novela perdura como un documento acerca de una ciudad harapienta y corrupta -como lo eran en los años treinta el estado y el pueblo alemanes-, y la claudicación ante el nazismo en ciernes y el egoísmo de un generalizado sálvese quien pueda. El consumado oficio de Isherwood convierte el documento en literatura.