Isak, a strong, stoical ‘tiller of the ground, body and soul’, makes his way into the Norwegian hinterlands and settles on an area of land that suits him, unaware that it belongs to the state. He fashions the land into a farm, named ‘Sellanraa’ by the enigmatic Lensmand Geissler, and builds a life for himself with his wife, Inger, and their children. Together they endure the seasons and the encroachment of industrialisation as they cultivate the land and make it fertile, proving that fulfilment lies with the soil. Told with great simplicity, Growth of the Soil is a rich and rewarding vision of peasant life and the fundamental human need to connect with the natural world.