The Meadowlark Sings by Helen Ruth Schwartz is a refreshingly different tale.  Fantasy and romance blend together with just a dash of sci-fi as we peer into the possibility of a future where lesbians and gays have their own country and the United States expatriates their homosexual children to this country by the age of three.  The reader must first suspend any knowledge of what the experts say can never happen in California—that, in the greatest earthquake the state has ever seen, two-thirds of the state is ripped from the mainland in an immense catastrophic rift.  However, if the reader allows herself to enter into the fantasy of “what if…,” Schwartz has given us a truly wonderful story.

Because of the stated history of the United States from 2010 to 2055 (the year in which the story takes place), the country of Cali, formerly California, is now the place where all homosexuals from the US are deported within the first three years of their lives, once they test positive for the gay gene, the Scarpetti gene.  Cara Romero is one of those people who came to Cali as a toddler and was adopted by two women who cherish her.  She has grown up to become the Director of the Office for the Aging in Cali.  She runs an innovative program started by her predecessor where retirement centers are only built in conjunction with universities and are also related to child care facilities.  The result has been a dramatic increase in quality of life and life span for Cali’s elderly.  Because of Cara’s expertise, the Prime Minister of Cali, Miriam Ekstrom, decides to lift the travel ban imposed on Calian citizens for their own safety, and allows Cara to attend the World Conference on Aging in New York in order to present Cali’s revolutionary program for the elderly to the world.

The prospect of traveling to the US excites Cara, in spite of the fact that she will have to travel with a body guard and will be in fear for her life in New York because the evil Olms still like to incite US citizens to attack and kill gay people.  Working with Tim Felmar, her “escort officer” and press agent, the two prepare for the journey, but not before an ex-lover presents Cara with a challenge: find the Prime Minister’s lover, Barbra Weissman, a physician who had been working in the embarkation program from the United States (she chose to remain behind because she had a daughter who tested negative for the Scarpetti gene and she refused to give her up—homosexuals stayed in the US at their own risk at the beginning of the deportation program).

Arriving in New York, Cara endears herself to the country with her charm and intelligence, but when she and Tim Felmar are almost mobbed by a crowd of enthusiastic supporters, they are whisked from their hotel to a more secure place.  The place just happens to be the vacation home of the President of the United States, James Mooran.  That’s where Cara meets Jessica Mooran, the president’s daughter, and they embark on a friendship that becomes even more and sets both women’s lives into a tailspin as they try to figure out how Jessica, a gene-negative Scarpetti heterosexual, could develop any feelings for Cara at all, and how she and Cara can be together once the conference ends.  All this, while trying to locate the mysterious Barbra to try to get her to come back to Cali to be with the Prime Minister, who knows nothing about Cara’s search.

Schwartz’ tale is inspirational and enlivening.  Two mysteries intertwine a love story, making this tale a real page turner.  The “history” of Cali and the United States is skillfully interwoven with the rest of the story.  The developing romance between Cara and Jessica is beautifully told.  The Meadowlark Sings is another fine offering by Haworth Press and this intelligent, masterful story is not to be missed.