Stig Sæterbakken (1966-2012) was known as an author that would not shy away from painful subjects under debate. He was also one of our foremost essayists. In this book we have selected some of the highlights from almost 20 years of exploring the possibilities of the genre. Here you find critical and enthusiastic studies of writers like Samuel Beckett, William Faulkner, Søren Kirkegaard and Louis-Fernand Céline, artists like Emanuel Vigeland and Joel-Peter Witkin, a wide essay discussing the post-war use of Adolf Hitler as a metaphor for evil, as well as specializing in topics like ethics, anxiety, having a death wish, holiness, melancholia, tenderness, obscenity, beauty, identity and being well dressed.

The selection is gathered from the collections Aesthetic Bliss (Estetisk salighet - 1994), The Evil Eye (Det onde øye - 2001) and Dirty Things (2010), and the bonus track "Sacred Tears" that is published in a book for the first time.

The afterword is written by Anders Johansson, PhD in Literature at the University of Umeå and critic in Swedish Aftonbladet.