Pale Fire is a book by Vladimir Nabokov split between a poem by the fictional John Shade and commentary by the fictional academic and friend of Shade, Charles Kinbote. The poem is largely autobiographical and Kinbote's commentary describes more about Shade and his relationship with Kinbote than about the poem itself. Into his commentary, Kinbote weaves several stories about the king of Zembla, who escaped and was killed, hinting that Shade, who was murdered, was actually the king.