| The Secret of Evil | |
| Title Orig: | El Secreto del Mal |
| Translator: | Chris Andrews |
| Author: | Roberto Bolaño |
| Cover Artist: | Max Beckmann, Self Portrait with Champagne Glass, 1919 |
| Country: | Chile |
| Language: | Spanish |
| Publisher: | Anagrama (Spanish) New Directions (English) |
| Pub Date: | 2007 |
| English Pub Date: | 2012 |
| Media Type: | Print (paperback) |
| Pages: | 182 |
| Isbn: | 8433971433 |
The Secret of Evil (El Secreto del Mal, 2007) is a collection of short stories and recollections or essays by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003). The English translation by Chris Andrews was published by New Directions in 2012. The Spanish version was published posthumously and contains 21 pieces, 19 of which appear in the English edition. Several of the stories in the collection feature characters that have appeared in previous works by Bolaño, including his alter ego Arturo Belano and characters that first appeared in Nazi Literature in the Americas.
Some pieces are autobiographical or semi-autobiographical recollections, like "I Can't Read" or "Death of Ulises". Two pieces are essays or speeches previously published in Between Parentheses: "Vagrancies of the Literature of Doom", and "Sevilla Kills Me" (as well as the piece "Beach", then-considered an essay, now reprinted here as fiction).