"A Sudden Change of Heart," by Barbara Taylor Bradford. Doubleday. 350 pages. $24.

Barbara Taylor Bradford's latest novel is about a friendship between two women. The friendship, which began in childhood, lasts throughout their lives, until one dies.

The reader is quickly absorbed into this friendship and stays with it, as do the friends while they grow up and make their own lives.

Most important, the story's about understanding, the communication needed to achieve it, and the "if only I had known" situations. It's about the effect that high-profile, successful careers have on families, and the ugly things hidden under the prettiest of rugs.

When this story's change of heart occurs, the world is brighter for some of the characters; but for one, it just makes possible a peaceful death.