This touching novel takes us on a journey through the mind. It centers on Hugh Person, an employee of an American publishing house, his love affair, and the tragic events it entails. The author once again flirts with death, this time discussing the 'transition from one state of being to another.'

Vladimir Nabokov is a famous Russian-American writer, poet, translator, and literary scholar. His novels 'Camera Obscura,' 'Invitation to a Beheading,' 'Lolita,' 'Ada, or, Joy,' and others are popular throughout the world. Nabokov was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times and was hailed as a living classic.

He was also seriously interested in chess and entomology: his articles on butterflies and chess problems have been published. The novel is being published in a new translation by Nabokov scholar Andrei Babikov. The translator's additions and commentary describe the novel's origins, its interweaving with Nabokov's other works, and help decipher the codes hidden within the text itself.