What’s the point of trying to leave a mark when everything disappears? This question is at the heart of Proof I Was Here, a novel that tells the picaresque coming-of-age story of a young thief and aspiring artist who attempts to reboot her life on the streets of Barcelona after an unexpected breakup. Hailing from Toronto, where she has an assault charge waiting, Niki is outside of Canada for the first time. The pickpockets, squatters, and graffiti artists she meets challenge her to reassess her ideas about luck and art. With the help of a passionate Catalan separatist who dreams of building a new country from the ground up, Niki realizes that starting her life over from scratch could be an opportunity—if she can just find a way to clear her name.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Wolsak and Wynn Publishers Ltd.
Date Published: May 28, 2019
Subjects: Fiction / Coming of Age

About the Author: Winner of the CBC Literary Prize for fiction (2013) and nonfiction (2017), Becky Blake’s work has appeared in The New Quarterly, Taddle Creek, and Against Death: 35 Essays on Living. Her debut novel, Proof I Was Here (Wolsak & Wynn, 2019) was a Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards finalist. Becky teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Education.