The story begins with both death and life. Alex Voorman's wife, Isabel, is killed by a reckless driver. While she is brain dead, her family has to make the decision to end her life support but not before giving the OK for a heart transplant as Isabel was an organ donor. A state away, in Chicago, another woman, Janet Corcoran, is ill with heart disease. Alex's tragedy is her salvation.

There's a lot to love about "Irreplaceable." While the story centers on one beating and alive heart, many of the characters are heartbroken. Alex rejects the clichés that might give him comfort and instead clings to grief and anger. Janet, though her life is saved, seeks to connect with her donor's family and deals with the reality of a lifetime of medical intervention and a marriage that might not withstand it.

While Picoult might explore the mysterious, wondrous ways Janet receives some of Isabel's soul as well as her heart, Lovely sticks to the more reality-based technicalities of transplants, the effects on all involved and the no less wondrous miracle that one heart can transform so many lives.

While Janet reaches out to Alex and his mother-in-law, Bernice, he instead tries to deny any kind of connection. "From Janet's first card, from Lotta's first e-mail, a channel opened to a bright parallel universe whose inhabitants believed that a miracle had occurred, that the awful tragedy had been averted. And who was the messiah of this bright parallel universe? To whom did the Corcorans owe their Salvation? Isabel." (page 303)

Whether recovering from heartbreaking loss or a heart transplant, each person is more unique, more irreplaceable than we know, and Lovely's novel helps the reader to uncover the intricate ways of love, loss and healing.

A reader's guide, while not included in the book, is available at www.everywomansvoice.com. Lovely is scheduled for two Milwaukee-area appearances in the next week.