The best boy-meets-girl-meets-void story ever written. Professor Philip Engstrom is in love with Alice Coombs, a particle physicist who, unfortunately has fallen in love with Lack, an artificially created nothingness, a rift in the universe that absorbs some things and disdains others. For this reason, Alice finds Lack an irresistibly mysterious personality--something that makes it an unbeatable rival for Philip. 224 pp. Author tour. Internet publicity. 20, 000 print.