This is a pederastic novel of the Berlin boy-bars. Puppenjunge translates literally as "The Boy-Doll", but published in English as The Hustler, as 'Puppenjunge' was Berlin slang for 'male prostitute'. In a note to the American publisher of this book, Christopher Isherwood said, "It gives a picture of the Berlin sexual underworld early in this century which I know, from my own experience, to be authentic."