“Draft from the Past” (1972) is the next Swiss novel after “Ada” by Vladimir Nabokov, in which the receptivity of the mind and the responsiveness of the soul become, without exaggeration, questions of life and death. The tragic love story of the book’s hero Hugh Person, assistant to the editor-in-chief at a large American publishing house, intertwines with the writer’s and personal circumstances of his colorful client, Mr. R., and brings the reader closer than ever to Nabokov’s “main theme.” The novel, first titled according to the author’s authorized version of the Russian title, is published in a new translation and accompanied by an afterword, commentary, and additional materials that shed light on the author’s intentions.