In December 2024, The Markaz Review featured The Curse of the Chinar Tree, a family horror story by Paranda writer Shamsia, translated from Dari by Abdul Bacet Khurram.
“The ailing health of a chinar tree outside a family home in rural Afghanistan mirrors the sickness growing inside, as a malevolent, shiny black stone possesses the family’s patriarch,” said The Markaz Review Literary Editor Malu Halasa. “All the ingredients of obsession are in play: the tensions between religion and madness; frightened children, and an unspoken threat of ever looming violence. “
