It should come as no surprise to you when I report that Sue Miller's new novel, WHILE I WAS GONE (published by Knopf), is just splendid. Miller is a superb story teller, a fact in evidence since "The Good Mother," the first of her six published novels. She is in the rank of a few novelists, such as Richard Russo, Anne Tyler, Lawrence Block and John Irving, whose books I approach as an adventure, an event.

Ms. Miller is in familiar and comfortable territory with WHILE I WAS GONE. The protagonist is a mother of three grown daughters, living in a New England hamlet - everything in New England seems to be just outside of Boston - and she has a shocking secret in her past. She also has a patient husband whose love is severely tested when the past collides with the serenity and security of the present.

But it isn't only that Sue Miller is a first rate story teller that makes her novels such a treasure. Her ability to explore relationships within the family prompted this reader to alert various aunts and cousins about this book. She strikes a universal note as she explores the exasperating differences and bumps that alienate us from the people we love most. She accomplishes this with painful insight.

Summer is approaching and you might be looking for that novel that you can be assured wll involve you in the sun of the beach or the cool of the country, or just lying around in a New York City park.

Go into your bookstore and look under the M's. Any of the Sue Miller books will do the trick. WHILE I WAS GONE, her newest novel, is a good addition to that collection.