A New Kind of Wilderness

7/13/2025

I was initially quite apprehensive when I saw the start of this introduce me to a family of Scandinavian tree huggers - quite literally! Quite swiftly, though, I was disabused of that rather twee notion as we meet Nik Payne and his three young children. They live in a modern-looking home on a small-holding in Norway where all are dealing with the recent death of wife and mother Maria. She already had a daughter, Ronja, who also features as they all have to come to terms with their grief as well as more tangible issues. Those latter problems are going to force them to relocate and also to cease with their practice of home-schooling. That’s because Nik is going to have to go to work to support them. Of course the youngsters are anxious about starting school some years after their contemporar