What if your lover left you for, well, nothing? Literally Nothing.

Consider the fate of Professor Philip Engstrand: the principal object of his attention, particle physicist Alice Coombs, stands with her colleagues on the cusp of a momentous discovery. They have created a void, a hole in the universe, a true nothingness that they have named 'Lack'.

Lack, however, is no ordinary black hole, but a void that displays the contours of a personality - a void that, as Philip begins to realize, utterly obsesses his beloved. In other words, Alice has fallen out of love with Philip and into love with Lack.

As She Climbed Across the Table is the daring and delightful tale of Alice's modern-day journey through the looking glass, and of Philip's struggle to win her back from that most elusive of romantic rivals: a lover without flaws - without, indeed, any qualities whatsoever . . .