May Dixon has never met a problem she couldn't solve--signs of her "tinkering" are all over her late-1940s Indiana farm--but she never thought she'd be inventing a whole new kind of family.


Faced with losing her husband, May pulls herself together and comes up with a plan. People think it's crazy to shell peas with a clothes-wringer, too, she tells herself. But it works.


Alive with the sensory detail of a mid-century farm household, from the golden glow of home-canned peaches to the sweat of the tobacco harvest, this evocative novel explores complex truths of family, friendship, community, and the past. Making It All Right is a story of what can--and can't--be accomplished with ingenuity, determination, and love.


"A quiet masterpiece of domestic narrative . . . with dramatic tension from beginning to end. Breeden-Ost's ear for dialog is uncanny, her psychological sense deep."
--James Alexander Thom, author of Follow the River


The most beautiful book I have read in some time. A multi-layered examination of . . . the meaning of love and forgiveness. The characters are flawlessly written, . . . intensely human.
-Sallyann J. Murphey, author of Bean Blossom Dreams