I Am the Last Square

Winner of the BBVA Sant Joan Prize, I Am the Last Square marks the stunning literary debut of Alba Gómez Gabriel. This urban novel provides a poignant critique of gentrification and real estate speculation that displaces residents and erases community identities.

I Am the Last Square is the story of a square in the heart of Barcelona, Plaça del Sol, a place that mirrors many other places. A fertile ground of stories, a stage of survival and crisis, of desire, loneliness, fear, love, and exclusion. It is inhabited by people who live within the system’s wheel, the neighbors of the Finca Groga, and people who, forced by speculators or by their own will, live on the margins.

Bel, the protagonist, has no house but has a home. The Square is her home: she intimately knows every corner, tree, and imperfection of the square. Living in a hotel under construction, she spies with binoculars on the residents of the Finca Groga, her former home before eviction.

Among the Finca Groga’s inhabitants are Fina, the estate owner; Ramon, a professor nearing retirement who struggles with his wife’s death; Andreas and Val, a couple facing relationship troubles; and Abril, a young woman trying to escape her family’s burdens. The story takes a mysterious turn when a new tenant appears, living on the Square’s bench, catching Bel’s eye from her window. Who is he, and what secrets does he bring to the Finca Groga?