The Evil Eye (Det onde øye) was published in 2001, and was the first of Stig Sæterbakkens many collections of essays. In this collection the essays circle around what you could call the problem of evil. The author insists that art and literature should be an area where general rules about moral should be pushed into the background, and be a place where both the author and the reader can explore the outer boundaries of human experiences without the ties and obligations that tend to hold us back.

Sæterbakken shows great range in knowledge and interests. He writes engaged about works by Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Søren Kirkegaard, William Faulkner, Samuel Beckett, Edgar Allan Poe and Emmanuel Bove, to name just a few. In this collection you will also find the essay about Peter Handkes controversial agitation for the Balkan cause of the Serbs.