Mr Norris Changes Trains

“The Works and Days of Mr. Norris” is one of the classic novels from Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin period. Although this work was written four years earlier than his famous book “Goodbye to Berlin” (the plot of which became the basis for the Broadway musical “Cabaret” and Bob Fosse’s cult film of the same name with Liza Minnelli in the leading role), these novels are sometimes printed in one collection because their themes echo one another. So, Berlin before the Nazis come to power. Here, Europe-wide famous nightlife is still in full swing: jazz is sobbing, cabaret and club lights are burning. Free morals still reign, adventurers of every kind thrive, and vices of all shades flourish, with rivers of alcohol flowing between cocaine banks. Here, real street fights between the “Reds” and the “Browns” are still going on—and nobody can know what tomorrow will bring. And young Englishmen, the heroes of both of Isherwood’s novels, observe this colorful kaleidoscope of surprising faces and events with eyes wide open in naive amazement—without realizing how soon this strange, charming, and peculiar decadent world will come to an end.