GENETICS professor Don Tillman is struggling to find a wife.

His fastidiousness, love of schedules and lack of empathy have made dating difficult and so he has devised a 16-page questionnaire to help him on his quest for a life partner.

Indeed, when his colleague and friend Gene asks him to deliver a lecture on his behalf (on Asperger's Syndrome) Don presents him with a three-option dilemma based around the fact Don had already allocated the time to cleaning his bathroom.

Similarly when a woman asks him out by saying they could “talk generally together” Don replied: “I need at least a broad indication of the subject domain”.

However when his path crosses with fiercely outspoken and intelligent Rosie Jarman, his schedule – and very existence – are thrown into disarray.

Whilst he is set on finding a life partner, she is desperate to find out who her real father is.

Don acts irrationally for the first time in his life and diverts time from his wife project to plentiful swabbing as he tests dozens of men to help Rosie find her dad.

This debut novel from Graeme Simsion - previously an IT consultant - contains a narrative which gallops from genetics to dating with cocktail-making and simulated sex on a model skeleton in between.

Through the unflinching account of the professor's, it is easy to laugh, wince and commiserate with every social faux pas.

Don’s exchanges with people are baffling to him and amusing to the reader – however for all his lack of social skills, he is one of the most protagonists I have come across in a novel.

The flashes of poignancy are made more acute through humour, for example when he introduces the reader to Gene’s children: “It occurred to me that I might be able to include Eugenie and her half-brother Carl as my friends, making a total of four.”

The character of Rosie herself is also a complex one: she is strong-willed and attractive but also fixated on a childhood wish of a Disneyworld visit that never came true.

Despite the medical references and the DNA symbolism (Gene is desperate to have sex with women of every nationality and even has a corresponding map), at its core this book is about acceptance and veers away from labels, just as Don refuses to categorise himself as autistic or not.

It is simply one of those novels which makes you want to go running down the street with a copy shouting: “READ THIS”.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion is published by Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin Books. It costs £12.99.