Mountains, Fugitive Life and the City of Purity

City Desk :

Bangla travel writing blends observation and introspection, and Altaf Hossain Uzzal’s Mountains, Fugitive Life and the City of Purity exemplifies this, published by the Joldhi publications and reviewed by Esrat Jahan Maria.
Beyond tours of Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, it probes the traveller’s inner world.

Beginning in Norway in April 2003, Uzzal’s reflections move from the snow-laden stillness of Tromsø and Narvik to the sobering memory of war preserved at the Narvik War Museum. History, for him, is not distant-it is a reminder of human fragility.

In Denmark, Copenhagen and its surrounding towns reveal a society shaped by order, balance and quiet warmth. The rural countryside, with its red-tiled houses and flower-filled gardens, becomes less a postcard image than a philosophy of life.

Germany offers contrast: Frankfurt’s modern skyline stands beside the medieval Römerberg, embodying Europe’s layered history. Through his friend Ayub, the author touches poignantly on migration and the quiet loneliness of exile.

From Norway’s snowy Tromsp-Narvik and war museum (2003) to Denmark’s orderly Copenhagen countryside, Germany’s Frankfurt-Römerberg contrasts, and a migrant’s exile via friend Ayub, it culminates in Switzerland’s “City of Purity” by Lake Zurich; nature and society in harmony.

Uzzal’s gentle prose evokes mood over facts, positing travel as inner transformation.
The travel book is currently available at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair, being held on the premises of Bangla Academy. The cover has been designed by Liton Halder, and the book is priced at Tk 350.