When Vladimir Nabokov gave up the ghost he left behind an unfinished work called The Original of Laura, and with it a dilemma for his family. He asked them to destroy the manuscript.

Since his death, his wife and son, Vera and Dimitri, have kept Laura in a Swiss vault, unable to destroy the work of a genius, but unwilling to defy Vladimir's dying wishes.

Now the fate of the work has been decided—and by Vladimir himself, from beyond the grave.

"My father appeared before me and said with an ironic grin: 'You're stuck in a right old mess. Just go ahead and publish,'" the younger Nabokov, who is his father's literary executor, told [Der Spiegel].